AB Robert Harvey, submariner HMS Regent - sunk 1943

Able Seaman Robert Harvey, was serving on the submarine HMS Regent when it went down in 1943, with all hands lost. It was north of Barletta, Puglia, Italy on 18th Apil 1943, having left Malta to patrol the southern Adriatic 6 days earlier. A loud explosion was heard, which was later believed to be HMS Regent striking a mine. It was reported overdue at Beirut on the 1st May 1943. The wreck was found much later under 28 metres of water.

Robert, or Bob as he was known, was born in November 1911 and had married Kate Elizabeth Frost, Kitty, in 1935, but they had no children. Kitty remarried some years after his death.

Bob had been in America in 1942, when HMS Regent was being refitted, and had recorded a record which was with Kitty's family, with whom he had been staying. His sister learned of this record in 2009 and asked if she could have a copy or recording from it, to hear her brother's voice again. Sadly this has not been possible.