Cedric Popkin

Group portrait of the officers and NCOs of the 24th Machine Gun Company in March 1918. Sergeant Popkin is second from the right in the middle row. Cedric Bassett Popkin (20 June 189026 January 1968) was an Australian soldier considered most likely to have killed "The Red Baron". Popkin was an anti-aircraft (AA) machine gunner with the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War.

Early life Cedric Bassett Popkin was born in Sydney on 20 June 1890 and, by 1904, he and his family were living in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and they lived in a number of towns in this area.

Popkin initially trained as a carpenter and is recorded to have been working as this in Mullumbimby in 1908.

The RAF credited the "kill" to Brown, although it is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by an AA machine gunner firing from the ground. The identity of the person who shot the Baron remains uncertain.303 ammunition was the standard ammunition for all machine guns and rifles used by British Empire forces during World War I. Many experts believe that the shot probably came from Popkin, though some believe that William John "Snowy" Evans may have been responsible.

Later life After being discharged from the army, Popkin worked once more as a carpenter. He spent most of the remainder of his life in Tweed Heads and the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. In 1964, he told the Brisbane Courier-Mail: "I am fairly certain it was my fire which caused the Baron to crash, but it would be impossible to say definitely that I was responsible ... As to pinpointing without doubt the man who fired the fatal shot, the controversy will never actually be resolved."

He died in Tweed Heads on 26 January 1968 at the age of 77. He is buried in the Mt. Thompson Memorial Gardens at Brisbane, Australia.

Planned memorials A memorial to Popkin is being planned for the hinterland town of Palmwoods by the local Returned and Services League (RSL) sub-branch.

Another one is being planned by residents of the village of Tyalgum, where he served as postmaster.