David Robertson was born in August 1916 in Auckland, a son of Sir Carrick Robertson. He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School where he represented the school in rugby, rowing and swimming. He studied medicine first at Dunedin and then at Melbourne, where he won an anatomy scholarship under Professor Wood Jones, qualifying in 1940. While still at medical school he took part in a survey of the Sir Joseph Banks Islands in the Spencer Gulf, and was the co-author of a paper on the fishes of South Australia. With the onset of war he joined the New Zealand Army as a resident medical officer, and was wounded at Cassino. He served with the 6th Field Ambulance and the No.1 General Hospital. On demobilisation he returned to England to take his FRCS, which he obtained in 1946. He returned to New Zealand for two years working with his father at the Mater Hospital and doing general practice in Otahuhu. He decided to study the newly emerging specialty of neurosurgery so returned to England where he studied at the Manchester Royal Infirmary under Sir Geoffrey Jefferson. Upon returning to New Zealand in 1951 he was appointed as neurosurgeon to the Auckland Hospital and to the Mater Hospital. He had a particular interest in the surgery of Parkinson's disease and hydrocephalus in children. In 1958 he became a Fellow of the Australasian College. He continued in active practice until his retirement in 1981. David was a very active conservationist and an elected member of the Auckland Institute and Museum. He had a special interest in the native birds and trees of New Zealand. In 1978 he was elected to the Waipoua Forest Sanctuary advisory committee and helped in the formation of the Tahuna-Torea reserve in Glen Innes. In his own property in the Bay of Islands he propagated many hundreds of native trees. He made a special study of the exotic Macademia nut tree, working to find which variety was most suitable for growth in New Zealand. His work on this matter is being carried out by his son, an orchardist at Kerikeri. A lifelong interest in sailing gave him the impetus to both build and sail racing dinghies. He was for many years one of the group trained to act as guides at the Auckland War Museum. He was survived by his wife, Isabel, daughter of Jane Taylor, a nurse, and son Ian, when he died suddenly at his home in Auckland on 26 January 1985, aged 68.