Ships
- HMS Undine Captain from 11 October 1943
Terence Corin Robinson was born in Nottingham on 14 June 1903. His father, George Edward Robinson, was an artillery officer. Robinson joined the Royal Navy on 15 January 1917 and on 15 May 1921 went to sea as a midshipman in the battleship Queen Elizabeth. He was made an acting sub-lieutenant on 15 September 1923, confirmed as sub-lieutenant on 15 June 1924, and promoted lieutenant on 15 October 1926. Early reports described him as conscientious and trustworthy, and as an officer who handled his men well.
He became a lieutenant-commander on 15 October 1934. In May 1935 he took command of the destroyer Restless, and the following year he commanded the minesweeper Harrow. From 11 April 1937 he commanded the destroyer Diamond on the China Station. During that posting he met Diana Blair, who was visiting her sister, and she became his wife.
He returned to home waters for the Second World War and on 6 July 1940 became commanding officer of the destroyer Fury. In her he worked off the Libyan coast and bombarded positions to the west of Sollum. He was mentioned in despatches in the King's Birthday Honours of 1 July 1941. Promoted commander on 31 December 1941, he left Fury on 13 January 1942 for the Operations Division at the Admiralty.
On 11 October 1943 he was appointed captain of the new U-class destroyer Undine, then fitting out at John I. Thornycroft's yard at Woolston. She had been launched on 1 June 1943 and was commissioned in December. After working up at Scapa Flow she joined the 25th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean on 2 February 1944, and through the spring she escorted convoys and patrolled.
In May 1944 the flotilla came home for the invasion of Normandy. Undine joined Bombarding Force K, the gunfire-support group for Gold Beach, and on the night of 5 June escorted that force across the Channel. On 6 June and through 8 June she fired in support of the troops ashore, then patrolled the Bay of the Seine until she was released from the operation on 11 June and sent back to the Mediterranean.
There she supported operations around Corsica and shelled the west coast of Italy. Along the Adriatic she bombarded the German flank of the Gothic Line from inside a narrow swept channel, where the navigation left no room for a lapse in watchfulness. For outstanding resolution and skill in that support of the Eighth Army he received the Distinguished Service Cross, announced on 24 April 1945.
On 11 December 1944 Undine sailed for the Pacific. In January 1945 she took part in carrier strikes against Sumatra. From the middle of March she operated with the United States Fifth Fleet and later the Third Fleet. On 27 March 1945, south of the Sakishima Islands, she left the British carrier force and picked up the crew of a ditched British Avenger and an American Corsair pilot who had been adrift for two days. She remained with the American fleets until August and then went on to Sydney. Robinson stayed in command until September 1945.
After the war he was executive officer of the Royal Naval Air Station at Ford, in Sussex, HMS Peregrine, from 21 March 1946 until October 1947. He retired on 14 June 1953, his fiftieth birthday, and died in Portsmouth in March 1987. The stars he wore trace the same wartime path: the Atlantic, Africa, Italy, France and Germany, and Burma with the Pacific clasp, with the oak leaf of his 1941 mention on the War Medal.