John Corbett died on 21 October 2011 aged 87. He was born in New Zealand in 1924 and was educated at Kings College Auckland. He joined the Royal Navy via the Governor General nomination scheme and attended Dartmouth Naval College as a special entry cadet in 1942 and on passing out as a midshipman joined HMS Birmingham at Simonstown.
He was present on the 23 November 1942 at the rescue of some 600 Survivors from the SS Tilawa torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean.
In March 1943 he joined HMS Warspite at Mombasa. The ship returned to the UK and then sailed for the Mediterranean where the ship was engaged in supporting the landings in Sicily and Salerno in July to September 1943 and was present at the surrender of the Italian fleet. He subsequently survived a hit on the Warspite by a German armour piercing radio controlled glider bomb which seriously damaged the ship and she was towed to Malta. He returned to the UK on HMS Nelson.
Between January and April 1944 he served aboard HMS Verulam and was engaged in escorting convoys from Scotland to Russia. He subsequently served aboard HMS Cubitt as navigator undertaking the escort of supply ships to Arromanches, Normandy.
He was accepted for flying and elementary training in Canada and after the end of the war returned to the UK to complete his training in Harvards at RAF Calverley and Ouston. In 1949 he married Ann in Edinburgh.
He trained to fly the Firefly MK1 at RNASs Lossiemouth and St. Merryn and served on HMS Ocean with 816 NAS in the Mediterranean during the Palestine troubles. 816 became part of the Australian Navy embarked on HMAS Sydney and at Nowra, New South Wales between April 1949 and summer 1951.
He did observer training with 719 NAS at RNAS Eglinton between 1951 and 1953 and subsequently was flight deck officer on HMS Centaur.
He became a specialist in the radio control of pilotless aircraft for missile development and moved between the Admiralty, Ministry of Aviation and RNAS Lossiemouth. He became Commanding Officer of 728B NAS based in RNAS Hal Far. The squadron provided pilotless drones as targets particularly for the Sea Slug missiles which were then being developed. Initially the squadron operated Fireflys but subsequently Meteors and Canberras.
He was no respecter of convention for the sake of it and was an effective problem solver. That is clear from the following comments he made on his approach to the adapting of the Firefly to pilotless flight.
“The unreliability was greatly improved by looking at every component and submitting it to the question Is this bit 100% essential to the continuation of the flight? If the answer was ‘no’ the component was consigned to the dustbin whatever its theoretical advantages and regardless of the reputation of its sponsor.”
There followed a spell at the Ministry of Aviation in London between 1962 and 1965. Between 1967 and 1968 he served as Aircraft Control Room Officer on HMS Hermes in the Mediterranean and the Far East.
Between 1969 and 1972 he was a member of the Naval Aircrew Advisory Board at RNAS Lee on the Solent. In 1973 he trained and worked in work study/management services with an eye to civilian appointment after retirement. Between 1978 and 1979 he finished off Royal Naval service as deputy director of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.
In 1979 he retired and became a security interview officer with the Department of Naval Security. He finally retired in June 1989.
In retirement he pursued his hobbies of dinghy sailing and genealogy and for 15 years he worked a voluntary official guide at Winchester Cathedral.
He is survived by Ann his wife and his three children and four grandchildren.