Even if his parents missed the implication of christening him Derek Ivan Mathie Robbins, they could scarcely be held to account for the consequences for his contemporaries. Known as “Dim” Robbins from his Truro schooldays, he launched himself as a practical joker before going to Sandhurst in 1936 and being commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment in 1938.

He would be the first to concede that his jokes were not invariably attended by great subtlety. But this was compensated for by quantity. His reputation was such that he seemed to feel obliged to produce a tease no matter how serious the occasion. While this lifted spirits during the more tedious military events, a discordant note could occasionally be touched.

He won the Military Cross with 4th Wiltshires in the North West European campaign, during which he was wounded three times. On October 5, 1944, in the aftermath of XXX Corps’ desperate drive to relieve Arnhem, this battalion was operating north of Elst between the Waal and the Neder Rijn.

When his company came up against a German machine-gun position dug into a railway embankment, he swiftly organised and led a spirited attack and follow-up that dealt with the opposition and took 30 prisoners.

After surrender, one of the prisoners – an officer – treacherously shot Robbins in the hand with his pistol.

Notification of the award as “immediate” testified to the gallantry of the action. But – at least according to the account Robbins gave – when Montgomery presented him with the ribbon, after prodding him in the chest with the pin, the field marshal hissed: “I was hoping never to see you again after that last incident.” (Robbins had previously been caught chalking graffiti on the side of the great man’s caravan.)

Robbins went on to command 4th Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment, TA, in Devizes from 1959 to 1962, when he was appointed OBE.

Subsequently promoted to colonel, he retired to his farmhouse in Chapmanslade in 1971.

Derek Robbins served as chairman of the Wiltshire Regiment Old Comrades Association, and worked for the Conservative Party for many years, as well as regularly hunting with the South and West Wilts.

Colonel D. I. M. Robbins, OBE, MC, infantryman, was born on May 18, 1918. He died on April 26, 2007, aged 88