RELATIVES of a British airman shot down by the Red Baron are set to drink a reconciliatory schnapps with a descendant of the infamous German WWI ace.

Lt Ernest Conway Lansdale was 'downed' by Manfred von Richthofen during the Great War's Battle of the Somme, September 30, 1916.

He died in a German prisoner of war camp shortly afterwards and is now buried at Bancourt Cemetery in France.

Relatives of Lt Lansdale will travel to France to commemorate the centenary of his death later this month.

However, before that trip, Lt Lansdale's great nephew and niece, Bradley Lansdale and his sister, will be guests at a special ceremonial dinner in London.

Bradley, from Parkstone, Poole, will join the families of the first two British airmen killed by the Red Baron as they meet a descendant of the Baron. Then all parties will drink a special toast of reconciliation from a replica goblet.

"Ernest, who was known as Conway to his family, had not been in France long," said Bradley. "He was killed on his first time up.

"He'd originally gone to France in 1914 in the Army Service Corps, but volunteered to transfer to the Flying Corp."

With every plane shot down, the Baron would commission a silver schnapps cup and toast to the death of his fallen adversary.

Second Lieutenant Lionel Morris, aged 19, and Captain Tom Rees, aged 21, became the first victims of Manfred von Richthofen on September 17, 1916.

Lt Lansdale flew the third plane destroyed by the German, who would go onto claim a staggering 80 kills before his death in 1918.

Attending from the Red Baron's family, during the London dinner set for September 17, will be Donat von Richthofen, who unlike his famous relative is an actual baron.

Lt Lansdale's brother, Herbert, also flew in the Flying Corps during the Great War and lost a leg after being shot down. The Lansdale boys lived in Yorkshire up until and during World War One, with Herbert moving south to Poole after the hostilities.

Bradley said: "I knew he was shot down but then five or six years ago I made the connection to the Red Baron.

Following training Conway arrived in France on September 17, 2016, and was dead less than two weeks later.

"The thing that always strikes me is that he was 21 when he died," said Bradley. "They were all too young to have had there own children, so I think it is important for the nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews to remember them now."