Lieutenant-Commander Colin de Mowbray

Lieutenant-Commander Colin de Mowbray , who died on July 11 aged 65, was a helicopter pilot and veteran of the Falklands war; in retirement he sailed on, and organised, round-the-world yacht races.

Colin John de Mowbray, who was born on April 12 1945 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, claimed to be descended from brothers Geoffrey and Roger de Monbrai, who fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. De Mowbray, whose father was a naval captain, was educated at Stowe before entering Dartmouth in 1963.

n Borneo in the 1960s he was a “jungly”, flying the “bootneck” Royal Marines of 45 Commando to and from jungle locations that he was advised to “memorise then forget”. In 1976 he attended the staff course at Greenwich, and in the late 1970s served on the British naval staff in Washington, DC.

In 1984-85 he was commanding 845 Naval Air Squadron, based at Yeovilton, Somerset, when, for an Air Day display, he ordered unicycles for a five-strong formation of pilots wearing flying overalls and helmets. De Mowbray rehearsed them in a lampoon of the Red Arrows, and the final manoeuvre involved the riders closing from different directions into the centre of the arena with helmeted heads lowered. The “display team” met with a huge crash, to monstrous applause.

In his last job in the Navy, de Mowbray was the staff officer of the Fleet Air Arm Reserve at Yeovilton, where at the end of Air Days he used to host a cocktail party. Once, after discovering that there were hordes of men named Colin in the FAA, the only stipulation for guests was that regardless of rank they should be called Colin. He felt that it would save the embarrassment of not remembering someone’s name.

He was appointed MBE in 1992 and retired from the Navy two years later.

In retirement de Mowbray spent 14 years helping to organise the Clipper round-the-world yacht races, conceived by his lifelong friend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. De Mowbray was skipper of Chrysolite in the first-ever Clipper event in 1996, coming in fourth.