A SECOND World War bomber pilot and former flying instructor at RAF Brize Norton has died aged 95.

Jack Ratcliff Robinson, known as Robbie, was a Royal Air Force pilot who flew from bases in Malta, patrolling the Mediterranean, and later on missions to Germany from Norfolk.

After using his experience as a pilot at the outset of the war to train others, he learnt to fly multi-engine aircraft and began operational service over the south coast of England in Beaufighters.

Never completely trusting his instruments, Mr Robinson hung a metal ornamental monkey from the cockpit roof to prove the angle of ascent or banking. It was especially valuable when flying in cloud and at night.

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Operating from Luqa, in Malta, in 1943 for 256 Squadron, he flew a Mosquito Mk VIII on intruder sorties.

He flew many missions under the call sign Thermal 27, covering Malta and Sicily as well as providing cover for North African troops, braving the heavily defended coastline. During 1943 he provided aerial cover to Winston Churchill when he travelled to Tehran aboard HMS Renown.

He was later drafted to 515 Squadron, flying a low-level night flying version of the Mosquito equipped with 500lb bombs and nose-mounted cannon from a base in Norfolk. There he met his future wife, WAF Sylvia Moore, at RAF Little Snoring. His mission targets included V bomb factories, German airfields supporting fighter craft and the Kiel and Keiser canals.

By war’s end he had clocked up more than 2,200 operational hours across some 75 missions and was rated an “exceptional” pilot by his superiors.

Mr Robinson was born in Nottingham on August 2, 1919 to parents Oliver and Minerva Robinson. He grew up in Nottingham and passed his first solo flying test in June 1939.

He had originally hoped to train as a doctor and was accepted into King’s College Hospital, London. But he was called up in his capacity as a pilot to the RAF when the Second World War broke out. After the war he married his first wife, Sylvia, in Ireland in 1946. He attempted to train as a doctor again, but grant funding was no longer available.

He instead carried on as a flying instructor in Driffield, Yorkshire, and he and his wife had two sons, Paul in 1947 and Graeme in 1951.

This was followed by a job in the Air Ministry from 1962 to 1964.

In 1979 he moved to Long Hanborough, West Oxfordshire, and bought the Post Office Stores in Freeland with his brother Paul. They sold it in 1984 and Mr Robinson worked in the Long Hanborough post office until he retired in 1986.

Sylvia died in 1992, in Witney Community Hospital. Mr Robinson was to remarry, however, in 1994, to Doreen Weston. They lived mainly in Exmouth before moving back to Oxfordshire, to Freeland House Care Home.

Mr Robinson died on November 22, 2014. He is survived by his wife Doreen, two sons, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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