Dorothy Robson

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Dorothy Robson (1919–1943) was an English physicist and engineer who helped develop bombsights for World War II. She was born on 10 November 1919 in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, to Shafto Robson, a World War I veteran and chemist, and Myra Lily Robson. She grew up with her sister Norma and attended local schools before her father opened a chemist’s shop in Hartlepool in 1927. Robson earned her A levels in 1937 and later completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics with Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds in 1940.

After graduation she hoped to join the Royal Air Force but was rejected for being too short. In 1942 she began a secretive job with the Ministry of Aircraft Production in Farnborough, working on bombsights to improve bombing accuracy. As a technician and junior scientific officer, she traveled to aerodromes and became known for her cheerful demeanor, earning the nicknames “Bombsight Bertha” and “the girl with the laughing eyes.”

In early November 1943, a week before her 24th birthday, Robson was testing a new bombsight on a Handley Page Halifax with No. 76 Squadron at RAF Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. The aircraft crashed on the moors near Enthorpe, northeast of Market Weighton. Three crew members were killed instantly, and Robson died of her injuries two days later at The Emergency Hospital in Great Driffield; her ashes were scattered from the air as she wished.

Robson’s death was deeply mourned within the RAF community. She is remembered in local memorials and was honored in various tributes over the years, including stained-glass windows dedicated to 76 Squadron in 1993, a Hartlepool war memorial plaque added in 2001, and mentions in later historical works and memorials. In 2025 she was also recognized in a silhouette statue as part of the Women of War exhibition at the International Bomber Command Centre.