Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameLt-Cmdr William Alastair Robertson CBE, DSC 
[381, Made on 8th Nov 2007], [386, Lt Cdr Robertson’s obit on Wednesday, 7 October 1998]
[381, Made on 8th Nov 2007], [386, Lt Cdr Robertson’s obit on Wednesday, 7 October 1998]Birth14 Jan 1915
Death8 Sep 1998
GeneralYr s. Of Edinburgh. In RN Fleet Air Arm, then Commisioner of Northern Lighthouses.
DNB Main notes for Lt-Cmdr William Alastair Robertson CBE, DSC
Independent Obituary: Lt-Cdr Alastair Robertson
A B Sainsbury
Wednesday, 7 October 1998
ALASTAIR ROBERTSON had two complementary careers, as an early member of the reconstituted Fleet Air Arm, for whom he was a distinguished navigating officer, and at the Board of Northern Lights, the body that manages Scottish lighthouses. In 1939 he was the first victor over the German Air Force, when, on 26 September, his Flight shot down a Dornier flying boat over Heligoland. He said that it was going so slowly that it would have been embarrassing to have missed.
Robertson joined the Navy in 1928 and after Dartmouth served in Nelson, the Home Fleet flagship, and the cruiser Exeter in the South Atlantic, where she was to distinguish herself in 1939. In the destroyer Antelope he was involved in the diplomatic and dangerous protection of British citizens involved in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1937 he volunteered for the reviving Fleet Air Arm. Naval aviation had originated in the First World War with the founding of the Royal Naval Air Service. This was merged with the Royal Flying Corps in 1918 into one service, the RAF. After a long struggle, the Naval Air Branch was returned to Admiralty control in 1937 and renamed the Fleet Air Arm. Robertson flew through the great evolution from biplanes such as the Hawker Osprey to the monoplanes first exemplified by the Blackburn Skua, which he was the first Service pilot to land on a carrier.
He had the good fortune to be Officer of the Watch in Ark Royal when a spare crew took his machine so close to the U-boat they were attacking that they fell victim to the blast of their own bombs.
In 1940 a surplus of FAA pilots caused his return to surface warfare. He was appointed in March to Fitzroy, a mine-sweeping sloop, as squadron navigator, but not before his ship had fired on German tanks over open sights while covering the evacuation of the BEF. He qualified as a specialist navigator, and won his first DSC for his mine-sweeping work, though his ship was lost.
He led the mine-sweeping off Dieppe before the disastrous raid in August 1942. He became navigator of Abdiel, one of four highly successful fast minelayers; at nearly 40 knots there was singularly little room for error but Robertson made none. Her fields were credited with some 30 sinkings and he was awarded a bar to his DSC.
The ship made a lightning raid on Taranto when Italy surrendered, and successfully landed many of her troops before, alas, detonating a ground mine while swinging at anchor. Robertson was rescued by an Italian ship but, uncertain of the Italian interpretation of the armistice thought it better to jump over the side, and his elementary cadet's breast-stroke brought him to relative safety and a service hospital where the patients lay at attention for Matron's rounds.
Robertson was mined for the third time in Scylla, the cruiser in which the irascible Admiral Philip Vian flew his flag for the Normandy invasion. Despite professional advice, Vian ordered the ship to exceed the safe speed needed to prevent the detonation of German pressure mines; inevitably there was a prompt explosion. The ship's company were cheered by the fact that she would be refitted in her home port and that the only person injured was the offending Admiral.
Robertson's last sea-going appointment was to Ocean, the carrier in which he served from her first commissioning in 1945 until 1947. He is remembered with particular affection by his yeoman, who recalls his whimsical and relaxed but never less than professional approach to life in general and his task in particular. After he had inadvertently misled his master by a reference to a wrong star, the yeoman was gently rebuked by Robertson's feigned relief when it became clear that the ship was not, after all, high and dry in the middle of the Sahara. Another shared contretemps caused Robertson to remind his assistant that "It is the stars, the stars above us, govern our condition".
The post-war contraction of the Fleet led to Robertson's retirement, and he started civilian life with the British Aluminium Company, where he made a notable contribution on the personnel side and was on the brink of a directorship when the firm was taken over. Disliking his new prospects, he made the fortunate career move from London to Edinburgh - he came from North Berwick along the coast - as General Manager to the Northern Lighthouse Board, the Scottish counterpart to Trinity House.
Seldom have job and man coincided more felicitously. His second career was long, happy and successful. From 1960 to 1977 he helped transform a faintly 19th-century organisation into a modern one. His man management was superb; the keepers and all the other staff recognised his professional skills and he was the first General Manager to be elected to the Board of Commissioners. He was appointed CBE in 1975.
Probably the happiest days of his working year were voyages to outstations in the Commissioners' tender, Pharos, and perhaps his best remembered work was an early manifestation of devolution when he negotiated the detachment of his Board from the supervision of Trinity House. On retirement to East Lothian he became Chairman of the Dunbar Lifeboat Committee.
Alastair Robertson married in 1944 Third Officer Jean Gordon WRNS, whom he had met by chance in his wardroom when she sought first aid in his ship after a hockey match - another instance of his good fortune in life.
A. B. Sainsbury
William Alastair Robertson, naval officer: born North Berwick, East Lothian 14 January 1915; DSC 1941, and bar 1943; General Manager, Board of Northern Lights 1960-77; CBE 1975; married 1944 Jean Gordon (one son, one daughter); died Haddington, Lothian 8 September 1998.
A B Sainsbury
Wednesday, 7 October 1998
ALASTAIR ROBERTSON had two complementary careers, as an early member of the reconstituted Fleet Air Arm, for whom he was a distinguished navigating officer, and at the Board of Northern Lights, the body that manages Scottish lighthouses. In 1939 he was the first victor over the German Air Force, when, on 26 September, his Flight shot down a Dornier flying boat over Heligoland. He said that it was going so slowly that it would have been embarrassing to have missed.
Robertson joined the Navy in 1928 and after Dartmouth served in Nelson, the Home Fleet flagship, and the cruiser Exeter in the South Atlantic, where she was to distinguish herself in 1939. In the destroyer Antelope he was involved in the diplomatic and dangerous protection of British citizens involved in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1937 he volunteered for the reviving Fleet Air Arm. Naval aviation had originated in the First World War with the founding of the Royal Naval Air Service. This was merged with the Royal Flying Corps in 1918 into one service, the RAF. After a long struggle, the Naval Air Branch was returned to Admiralty control in 1937 and renamed the Fleet Air Arm. Robertson flew through the great evolution from biplanes such as the Hawker Osprey to the monoplanes first exemplified by the Blackburn Skua, which he was the first Service pilot to land on a carrier.
He had the good fortune to be Officer of the Watch in Ark Royal when a spare crew took his machine so close to the U-boat they were attacking that they fell victim to the blast of their own bombs.
In 1940 a surplus of FAA pilots caused his return to surface warfare. He was appointed in March to Fitzroy, a mine-sweeping sloop, as squadron navigator, but not before his ship had fired on German tanks over open sights while covering the evacuation of the BEF. He qualified as a specialist navigator, and won his first DSC for his mine-sweeping work, though his ship was lost.
He led the mine-sweeping off Dieppe before the disastrous raid in August 1942. He became navigator of Abdiel, one of four highly successful fast minelayers; at nearly 40 knots there was singularly little room for error but Robertson made none. Her fields were credited with some 30 sinkings and he was awarded a bar to his DSC.
The ship made a lightning raid on Taranto when Italy surrendered, and successfully landed many of her troops before, alas, detonating a ground mine while swinging at anchor. Robertson was rescued by an Italian ship but, uncertain of the Italian interpretation of the armistice thought it better to jump over the side, and his elementary cadet's breast-stroke brought him to relative safety and a service hospital where the patients lay at attention for Matron's rounds.
Robertson was mined for the third time in Scylla, the cruiser in which the irascible Admiral Philip Vian flew his flag for the Normandy invasion. Despite professional advice, Vian ordered the ship to exceed the safe speed needed to prevent the detonation of German pressure mines; inevitably there was a prompt explosion. The ship's company were cheered by the fact that she would be refitted in her home port and that the only person injured was the offending Admiral.
Robertson's last sea-going appointment was to Ocean, the carrier in which he served from her first commissioning in 1945 until 1947. He is remembered with particular affection by his yeoman, who recalls his whimsical and relaxed but never less than professional approach to life in general and his task in particular. After he had inadvertently misled his master by a reference to a wrong star, the yeoman was gently rebuked by Robertson's feigned relief when it became clear that the ship was not, after all, high and dry in the middle of the Sahara. Another shared contretemps caused Robertson to remind his assistant that "It is the stars, the stars above us, govern our condition".
The post-war contraction of the Fleet led to Robertson's retirement, and he started civilian life with the British Aluminium Company, where he made a notable contribution on the personnel side and was on the brink of a directorship when the firm was taken over. Disliking his new prospects, he made the fortunate career move from London to Edinburgh - he came from North Berwick along the coast - as General Manager to the Northern Lighthouse Board, the Scottish counterpart to Trinity House.
Seldom have job and man coincided more felicitously. His second career was long, happy and successful. From 1960 to 1977 he helped transform a faintly 19th-century organisation into a modern one. His man management was superb; the keepers and all the other staff recognised his professional skills and he was the first General Manager to be elected to the Board of Commissioners. He was appointed CBE in 1975.
Probably the happiest days of his working year were voyages to outstations in the Commissioners' tender, Pharos, and perhaps his best remembered work was an early manifestation of devolution when he negotiated the detachment of his Board from the supervision of Trinity House. On retirement to East Lothian he became Chairman of the Dunbar Lifeboat Committee.
Alastair Robertson married in 1944 Third Officer Jean Gordon WRNS, whom he had met by chance in his wardroom when she sought first aid in his ship after a hockey match - another instance of his good fortune in life.
A. B. Sainsbury
William Alastair Robertson, naval officer: born North Berwick, East Lothian 14 January 1915; DSC 1941, and bar 1943; General Manager, Board of Northern Lights 1960-77; CBE 1975; married 1944 Jean Gordon (one son, one daughter); died Haddington, Lothian 8 September 1998.
DNB Cont'd notes for Lt-Cmdr William Alastair Robertson CBE, DSC
From The Scotsman on 11 September 1998
Lieut Comdr Alastair Robertson
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), The, Sept 11, 1998
Contributed Obituary
Lieutenant Commander W Alastair Robertson, former general manager, Northern Lighthouse Board
Born: 14 January, 1915 Died: 8 September, 1998, aged 83
LAUNCHED from the aircraft-carrier HMS Ark Royal on 26 September, 1939, Alastair Robertson was accorded joint credit when his flight of Blackburn "Skua" fighter-bombers shot down the first German aircraft, a Dornier 18 flying boat, to be brought down by the British in the Second World War. Earlier, he had been the first Service pilot to land the Skua, the Navy's first monoplane and a difficult mount, on an aircraft-carrier.
On an another occasion he was fortunate to be on duty as the Officer of the Watch on Ark when the flight was sent to attack a U-Boat. A substitute flew his aircraft, which was one of two brought down by the explosion of their own bombs, the substitute becoming the U-boat's prisoner.
Alastair Robertson was the younger son of William Robertson, who was seriously wounded when serving in the Royal Scots during the First World War and retired with his wife to North Berwick.
After entering the Royal Navy at the age of 13 as a naval cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Robertson served in the destroyer HMS Antelope during the Spanish Civil War, protecting British interests and rescuing refugees. He next specialised as a Fleet Air Arm pilot. In 1940 a temporary surplus of naval pilots led him to return to the surface navy and when evacuating troops from France his destroyer fought off German tanks at close quarters.
He then qualified as a specialist navigator and served in the leader of a minesweeping flotilla. His ship was eventually mined and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Minesweeping in the darkness ahead of the disastrous Dieppe raid, his minesweeper sighted a German vessel, an encounter which may have contributed to the high degree of readiness of enemy forces on shore.
Robertson next navigated the high-speed minelayer HMS Abdiel, where accurate navigation was essential for undertaking many hazardous operations close to enemy coasts. The enemy credited one of her minefields with sinking 36 ships. He was awarded a second DSC.
During the invasion of Italy in 1943, Abdiel, with a cruiser, made a daring high-speed dash to land Airborne Brigade troops in the port of Taranto. After her arrival she struck a mine and sank. Robertson was injured and endured a spell in hospital, being ordered to "lie to attention" during matron's rounds.
He then joined the light cruiser HMS Scylla, Admiral Vian's flagship for D-Day. Returning from the Normandy beaches, Vian directed Scylla to exceed the low speed necessary to avoid actuating German pressure mines. Robertson was immediately mined for the third time, the admiral being the only officer injured. The prospect of repairs in SCylla's home port greatly improved morale on board.
After the war and having married, Robertson left the navy and by 1960 was personnel manager in the British Aluminium Company with the prospect of a directorship. After the first hostile bid in the City, the firm was taken over by Tube Investments. He saw no future with the new management and so became general manager of the Northern Lighthouse Board.
This 18th-century institution he transformed in almost every respect. When he arrived, a new manned lighthouse was being built on the Calf of Man. It turned out to be the last of its kind because of the automation started by Robertson and completed in March 1998.
To implement reforms, he had first to break free from oversight by Trinity House in London, which since 1836 had had a veto on all changes to Scottish lights. This was achieved, not without difficulty, in an early success for Scottish devolution.
His reforms ranged from the use of helicopters for transportation to and from remote lighthouses to the sympathetic internal rebuilding of the board's Edinburgh head office, whose elegant frontage with a lighthouse displayed above the door is one of the last originals in George Street.
Robertson never lost sight of the human aspect and was at his happiest meeting keepers of isolated rock stations during the summer tours of inspection in the board's flagship mv Pharos. The keepers responded well to someone who knew the sea as well as they did and, despite the extent and pace of change, relations remained good, not least because Robertson personally conducted all the negotiations.
He was the first general manager to be elected to the Board of Commissioners of Northern Lights and was appointed CBE in 1975.
In 1977 he retired to East Lothian, where he served as chairman of the Dunbar Lifeboat Committee and president of the Royal British Legion at Gifford. He also helped, as chairman, in the renaissance of the Clan Donnachaidh Society.
Robertson married Jean Gordon, then an officer in the Wrens, in 1944. They met when she visited his ship for first-aid after a hockey match. She survives him along with their son, Alan, and daughter, Catherine. A sister is married to Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, Lord Lieutenant of the Lothians.
____________________
Lieut Comdr Alastair Robertson
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), The, Sept 11, 1998
Contributed Obituary
Lieutenant Commander W Alastair Robertson, former general manager, Northern Lighthouse Board
Born: 14 January, 1915 Died: 8 September, 1998, aged 83
LAUNCHED from the aircraft-carrier HMS Ark Royal on 26 September, 1939, Alastair Robertson was accorded joint credit when his flight of Blackburn "Skua" fighter-bombers shot down the first German aircraft, a Dornier 18 flying boat, to be brought down by the British in the Second World War. Earlier, he had been the first Service pilot to land the Skua, the Navy's first monoplane and a difficult mount, on an aircraft-carrier.
On an another occasion he was fortunate to be on duty as the Officer of the Watch on Ark when the flight was sent to attack a U-Boat. A substitute flew his aircraft, which was one of two brought down by the explosion of their own bombs, the substitute becoming the U-boat's prisoner.
Alastair Robertson was the younger son of William Robertson, who was seriously wounded when serving in the Royal Scots during the First World War and retired with his wife to North Berwick.
After entering the Royal Navy at the age of 13 as a naval cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Robertson served in the destroyer HMS Antelope during the Spanish Civil War, protecting British interests and rescuing refugees. He next specialised as a Fleet Air Arm pilot. In 1940 a temporary surplus of naval pilots led him to return to the surface navy and when evacuating troops from France his destroyer fought off German tanks at close quarters.
He then qualified as a specialist navigator and served in the leader of a minesweeping flotilla. His ship was eventually mined and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Minesweeping in the darkness ahead of the disastrous Dieppe raid, his minesweeper sighted a German vessel, an encounter which may have contributed to the high degree of readiness of enemy forces on shore.
Robertson next navigated the high-speed minelayer HMS Abdiel, where accurate navigation was essential for undertaking many hazardous operations close to enemy coasts. The enemy credited one of her minefields with sinking 36 ships. He was awarded a second DSC.
During the invasion of Italy in 1943, Abdiel, with a cruiser, made a daring high-speed dash to land Airborne Brigade troops in the port of Taranto. After her arrival she struck a mine and sank. Robertson was injured and endured a spell in hospital, being ordered to "lie to attention" during matron's rounds.
He then joined the light cruiser HMS Scylla, Admiral Vian's flagship for D-Day. Returning from the Normandy beaches, Vian directed Scylla to exceed the low speed necessary to avoid actuating German pressure mines. Robertson was immediately mined for the third time, the admiral being the only officer injured. The prospect of repairs in SCylla's home port greatly improved morale on board.
After the war and having married, Robertson left the navy and by 1960 was personnel manager in the British Aluminium Company with the prospect of a directorship. After the first hostile bid in the City, the firm was taken over by Tube Investments. He saw no future with the new management and so became general manager of the Northern Lighthouse Board.
This 18th-century institution he transformed in almost every respect. When he arrived, a new manned lighthouse was being built on the Calf of Man. It turned out to be the last of its kind because of the automation started by Robertson and completed in March 1998.
To implement reforms, he had first to break free from oversight by Trinity House in London, which since 1836 had had a veto on all changes to Scottish lights. This was achieved, not without difficulty, in an early success for Scottish devolution.
His reforms ranged from the use of helicopters for transportation to and from remote lighthouses to the sympathetic internal rebuilding of the board's Edinburgh head office, whose elegant frontage with a lighthouse displayed above the door is one of the last originals in George Street.
Robertson never lost sight of the human aspect and was at his happiest meeting keepers of isolated rock stations during the summer tours of inspection in the board's flagship mv Pharos. The keepers responded well to someone who knew the sea as well as they did and, despite the extent and pace of change, relations remained good, not least because Robertson personally conducted all the negotiations.
He was the first general manager to be elected to the Board of Commissioners of Northern Lights and was appointed CBE in 1975.
In 1977 he retired to East Lothian, where he served as chairman of the Dunbar Lifeboat Committee and president of the Royal British Legion at Gifford. He also helped, as chairman, in the renaissance of the Clan Donnachaidh Society.
Robertson married Jean Gordon, then an officer in the Wrens, in 1944. They met when she visited his ship for first-aid after a hockey match. She survives him along with their son, Alan, and daughter, Catherine. A sister is married to Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, Lord Lieutenant of the Lothians.
____________________