ROBERTSON, Colin Graham
| Service Number: | 41210 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Flight Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | Royal Air Force - unspecified units |
| Born: | Kings Norton, Worcestershire, England, 21 December 1917 |
| Home Town: | Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in action, North Sea, 6 March 1945, aged 27 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" |
| Tree Plaque: |
Kalamunda Stirk Park Memorial Walk
|
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll, Kalamunda Darling Range Road District Roll of Honour, Runnymede Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 5 Mar 1945: | Discharged British Forces (All Conflicts), Flight Lieutenant, 41210, Royal Air Force - unspecified units, Killed in Action | |
|---|---|---|
| Date unknown: | Enlisted 41210 |
Help us honour Colin Graham Robertson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Son of Eric and Phyllis Chilton Robertson, of Kalamunda, Western Australia.
Colin served with the Royal Air Force in No. 278 Squadron
THREE AIRMEN DECORATED
London, June 26.— Squadron-Leader Jack French, of Melbourne, has been awarded a bar to the D.F.C. Flight Lieutenant Colin Graham Robertson, of Perth, and Pilot-Officer Andrew Jackson, of Toowoomba, have been awarded the D.F.C.
Robertson has been a member of a Sunderland air crew since November, 1939, and was appointed captain in March, 1941. He has completed 2000 flying hours, 1780 of which were operational. He displayed outstanding qualities of leadership and reliability and completed his missions cheerfully under adverse weather conditions. On one occasion he located three lifeboats, containing 57 survivors of a merchantman, which had been torpedoed in the Atlantic. He alighted, transhipped the survivors to the plane and, despite a confused ocean swell, succeeded in taking off and bringing them back without damage to the plane.
Perth Pilot Saves Flier.
Flight Lieut. C. G. Robertson, D.F.C., of Gooseberry Hill, while risking his life and those of his aircraft crew, was responsible for the rescue of First Lieutenant Percy C. Quinn, of Daisetta, Texas, from death in the icy waves of the English Channel. The United States flyer was forced to 'ditch' his crippled Thunderbolt off Dunkirk. Robertson's crew of a Walrus sea rescue aircraft were Australians and members of the R.A.F. Learning by radio that air sea rescue launches could not arrive alongside the American's dinghy for some time, the Walrus crew landed, damaging their aircraft on sevenfoot high seas, and hauled the cramped and frozen fighter pilot aboard. The rough sea made a take-off almost impossible and the Walrus set out to taxi home. Waves breaking over the aircraft threatened to stop the motor and leave it helpless, and Robertson, veteran of seven successful rescues, decided to stake every thing on a bid to get airborne again. The Walrus was leaking. 'It was too rough to take off into the wind in the proper way, so we had a go getting off across wind,'
said Robertson later. 'We just made it and on the way home thawed out the American, who had been in the water for over an hour. Remaining members of the Walrus crew who risked being swept away in hauling the American aboard their wave-tossed aircraft, were 35year old F./O. C. ' G. Walker, : of Orion Street, Southern Cross, Western Australia, and 32-year-old F./Sgt. W. Shaw, of Wheatley Buildings, Club Row, Pelton Fell, Co. Durham.
ROBERTSON; In loving remembrance of our son, Flight Lieutenant Colin Graham Robertson, D.F.C., Royal Air Force, who lost his life in operations over the North Sea on March 6, 1945.