Shy Torque
Certainly the AT was trialled at Upavon in 1917.
The Larynx (which was indeed an attack platform) , in 1925 or so , pre-dated the "Queen Bee" by several years.
This, in the 30's, looked a lot like a Tiger Moth ( although strictly speaking it was more a derivative of the "Moth Major") and as, mainly Naval, AAA aerial targets, rather than attack systems , most of their operations were coastal , or out at sea.
Either way , it's possibly an apocryphal story , as the version told to me used "s-s-s-stick" , rather than "umbrella" .
I would be very interested in any reference to Flight's text version, as mine came purely from conversations during my initial involvement with RPVs, many years ago now.