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Robertson earned his wings and was commissioned in 1942, specialising as a torpedo-bomber pilot and qualifying to fly the Fairey Barracuda, which he described as “the ugliest aeroplane ever built”. It was also difficult to fly, overweight and, while pulling out from a dive (essential for delivering its weapons), likely to break up.

In July 1943 Robertson joined 827 Naval Air Squadron at Dunino, Fifeshire, under the command of Lt-Cdr Roy Baker-Falkner , a Battle of Britain fighter veteran and former test pilot. Under his leadership Robertson and his peers “survived 16 months” in Barracudas , flying from the carriers Furious, Implacable and Victorious.

In October the squadron joined 830 NAS to form No 8 Naval Wing, flying from Furious and from Hatston in the Orkneys. Robertson took part in Operation Tungsten on April 3 1944, when Baker-Falkner led a dive-bombing attack against the battleship Tirpitz. Robertson flew one of 42 Barracudas which shared 14 hits on Tirpitz, crippling her and ending any possibility of her threatening the D-Day landings.

In Operation Lombard, flying from Victorious, Robertson’s squadron successfully attacked enemy convoys off the coast of Norway; he was awarded a DSC for his many successful strikes at enemy shipping and given a permanent commission.

Ian George William Robertson was born on October 21 (Trafalgar Day) 1922 and educated at Radley. He resolved to join the Navy but failed the exams, so became a dispatch rider in the Bromley Home Guard. In 1940 he tried again, visiting the Naval recruiting office at Lewisham, which advised him to join the RNVR.

By late 1944 Robertson was an instructor at Yeovilton, and the following year he was appointed to the destroyer Obedient . In Germany, after war’s end, he claimed to have briefly commanded the German cruiser Prinz Eugen, then lying at Wilhelmshaven.

He qualified as a flying instructor in the first post-war course at the Central Flying School, Little Rissington, and held a number of flying appointments. As senior pilot in 813 NAS he flew another “abomination of an aircraft, the Blackburn Firebrand”, which had killed two test pilots while under development. The Firebrand suffered so many deck landing accidents that the Admiralty Board was advised to withdraw it from service. Robertson went on to serve as Commander (Air) at the Royal Naval Air Station, Culdrose, from 1956 to 1958 and of the carrier Albion (1958-60). From 1960 to 1962 he commanded the frigate Keppel, and from 1963 to 1965 the frigate Mohawk; he introduced helicopters to both ships.

Promoted to captain, Robertson commanded RNAS Culdrose, then as now the largest Naval air station, spent a year at the Imperial Defence College in 1968 and then, in one of his few desk jobs, 12 months at the Joint Warfare Establishment, Old Sarum. Then, in 1970, he was given command of the strike carrier Eagle. The government had already taken the decision to cut the Navy’s carriers, and announced that this would be Eagle’s last commission. One of Robertson’s first tasks was enforcing the abolition, on July 31 1970, of the rum ration.

Eagle was undergoing a refit, and Robertson applied his energy to getting her to sea; but on returning to Plymouth after trials, her starboard outer propeller struck a rock and he was court-martialled. The trial heard that the Ashe buoy was out of its charted position, and Robertson was reprimanded but retained his command. Although he took the blame with dignity, he always resented not having been told that the buoyage system had been changed.

Over the next 18 months Eagle, and her powerful air group, took part in exercises with the French and Americans; visited the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Far East; and held fly-pasts over Cape Town, Sydney and Hong Kong.

She also marked Britain’s withdrawal from “East of Suez” with parades in Singapore; covered the withdrawal of British forces from the Persian Gulf; and stood by during the 1971 crisis in Pakistan which resulted in war with India and the secession of East Pakistan. Nevertheless, she was paid off in early 1972.

Robertson was promoted to rear-admiral, making him one of the very few officers who started out in the RNVR to reach flag rank. He was Admiral Commanding Reserves and Director General of Naval Recruiting, and retired in 1974, at the relatively young age of 51. He was appointed CB.

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