Engineering and mountaineering were prominent themes for much of Kevin Walton’s varied life, and it was in the latter sphere that he won his Albert Medal (later translated to George Cross) for rescuing a member of an Antarctic survey team from a crevasse in 1946.

But he also served ten years in the Royal Navy. He joined as an engineer officer at the outbreak of war in 1939, having studied engineering at Imperial College, University of London, and found himself in the thick of naval actions for the next five years.

He was aboard the battleship Rodney during the decisive action against the Bismarck on May 26, 1941, when Admiral Sir James Somerville’s naval Force H attacked the German battleship with Swordfish torpedo-bombers, crippling her steering gear, then sank her with gunfire in the Atlantic.

Subsequently, Walton served in destroyers and took part in the Barents Sea action against the German cruiser Hipper and the pocket battleship Lützow on New Year’s Eve 1942. Accompanied by six escorting destroyers, the two German warships emerged from their hiding place in Altenfiord on Norway’s extreme northern tip to attack an Allied convoy of merchantmen taking supplies to Murmansk.

The German attack was frustrated, thanks to the skilful tactics of the commander of the naval escort, but the destroyer Onslow, in which Walton was engineer officer, was holed during the action. It was because of his skill and determination that Onslow was able to stay afloat and steaming long enough to reach port. Walton received the Distinguished Service Cross.

He was mentioned in dispatches while aboard HMS Duncan in the North Atlantic, again on destroyer escort duty, took part in several of the Malta convoys and served in Far Eastern waters towards the end of the war.

He would almost certainly have left the Navy at the end of hostilities in 1945, but an opportunity arose for him to sail for the Antarctic as a member of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey instead.

The primary purpose of the survey was to find a route over the mountainous Grahamland Peninsula, which stretches 1,000 miles northwards from Antarctica towards Tierra del Fuego, and then to map the peninsula’s coastline. The expedition set up a base camp at Marguerite Bay and prepared for an estimated two years’ work.

At about noon on August 24, 1946, a member of the survey team, Major John Tonkin, fell though the ice bridge over a crevasse and became wedged about 40ft feet down at a point where the crevasse narrowed. Ropes were lowered but it proved impossible to get a secure enough hold on Tonkin to haul him free of the ice walls of the crevasse.

Walton, who was with the party, volunteered to be lowered down to the trapped man to try to free him using the spike of an ice-axe as a hand tool, the narrow space not permitting it to be used in the normal way. He was first lowered down a wider part of the crevasse and worked his way precariously, with his crampons digging into the steeply sloping sides, until he could get close enough to chip away the ice gripping Tonkin’s legs and torso.

The work was maddeningly slow and exhausting, as Walton struggled to retain his balance and foothold while working on the ice. Unable to continue without brief respite, he had to be hauled to the surface four times during the three hours it took him to release Tonkin. Meanwhile, there was a constant threat of the crevasse walls moving and crushing them. Tonkin was finally pulled clear with no more serious injuries than cuts and bruises. He was a man accustomed to hardship, having served with the wartime SAS. After narrowly avoiding capture during a clandestine mission in France soon after D-Day, he returned to hunt down and arrest the man who had betrayed his group to the enemy.

His rescue from the crevasse in Antarctica bore a remarkable resemblance to an incident, a month earlier, when an American member of the Ronne Antarctic Research group became similarly trapped and was rescued by Dr Richard Butson of the British survey team. Both Walton and Butson were awarded the Albert Medal for their courage and determination in saving life. This award, named after Albert, Queen Victoria’s Prince Consort, was instituted in 1867 for saving life at sea, but ten years later the scope was broadened to allow awards for equal acts of gallantry on land.

During the Second World War, King George VI introduced the George Cross to recognise “acts of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger” by civilians or members of the Armed Services.

A Royal Warrant of 1971 authorised all surviving holders of the Albert Medal to exchange their awards for the George Cross.

Eric William Kevin Walton was born in Japan in 1918. His father was a missionary there and his mother came from a family who had served four generations in the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Monkton Combe and Imperial College.

He played a prominent part in the work of the Antarctic Survey and, with Butson, scaled several previously unclimbed Antarctic peaks, some of which rise to heights of almost 13,000 feet. Both he and Butson also received the Polar Medal. He also received its Clasp and Silver Commendation for a further crevasse rescue, on South Georgia, in 1952.

After return from Antarctica he began a teaching career and taught workshop engineering at Oundle School, the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and at Malvern College. He was one of the original instructors at the Outward Bound Mountain School in the Lake District. He later became involved in the construction of a nuclear power station in Wales and also in British Voluntary Service Overseas.

When the Royal Warrant of 1971 entitled him to the coveted letters “GC”, he chose to retain the emblem of the Albert Medal.

He is survived by his wife, Ruth, and by their son and three daughters.

Kevin Walton, GC, DSC, was born on May 15, 1918. He died on April 13, 2009, aged 90