With the death of John Robinson the maritime and industrial history world has lost one of its finest curators. John was born and brought up in west Cornwall and the sea played a formative role on his life. At Bristol University he joined the University Naval Contingent and served in coastal minesweepers. He was commissioned as sub lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1967 and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander.
He joined Liverpool Museums in 1970 as a maritime curator working on the collection that would become the Merseyside Maritime Museum. In 1970 he moved to Glasgow Museums where he took up the post of Deputy Curator of Technology. He then moved to the Science Museum to manage the Fund for the Preservation of Scientific and Technological Material, which he did with great care, diligence and insight. After 20 years in this post he transferred to the Department of Water Transport as a senior curator before retiring in 1994. He remained active in the sector and continued to be an enthusiastic member of the Maritime Curators Group until 2010.
John put his sailing experience to good use. He qualified as a Yachtmaster Offshore and sailed extensively in the Baltic and Mediterranean and participated widely in Cruising Association activities. His practical seafaring experience combined with curatorial expertise led John to set up European Maritime Heritage, an organization that was designed to bring together maritime museums and operators of traditional boats. He was also active the Maritime Heritage Trust and played an important part in helping to establish National Historic Ships.
In all the organizations in which he was involved, John was noted for his friendliness and willingness to offer advice. He was extremely knowledgeable and was always happy to share his expertise with others. He wrote many contributions on museum practice and maritime history for a variety of books and journals. He wrote with a distinctive wit and style; for example, in a survey of London's technology collections he used the analogy of a steak-and-kidney pie, with the larger institutions being the steak and the smaller ones adding ‘a kidneylike piquancy to the museum pie’.
John and I shared a common interest in early steamships – he wrote the first accurate history of the Comet engines – and he corresponded regularly with new thoughts and provided useful input to peer-reviewing on the subject. He always seemed to have a soft spot for the time he spent in Glasgow Museums and often made reference to it and flattered me as a rather indirect continuation of his legacy. His knowledge, humour and sage advice will be sorely missed.