Stoker 1st Class
Robert Reginald
GUNN
Royal Navy
18
Robert Gunn was born in Belfast, County Antrim on 23 August 1924, the son of Robert Reginald Gunn (a seaman/fisherman) and Margaret Diane Gunn (née Bell) of Liogoniel, County Antrim. At some time after leaving school he joined the Royal Navy and, although the exact date is not known, the earliest he could have joined was when he was fifteen i.e. August 1937. However, it is believed that he falsified his age on joining the Royal Navy, claiming a date of birth of 23 August 1922.
By December 1942 he was a Stoker 1st Class serving in HMS P48 in the Mediterranean. On 23 December 1942 HMS P48 sailed from Malta for her 6th war patrol (4th in the Mediterranean) with orders to carry out a patrol in the Gulf of Tunis. P48 did not return from this patrol and was assumed to have been lost with all hands. It was later reported that Italian Torpedo Boats (which had been escorting two merchant vessels) detected an Asdic contact at a point indicated to them by an aircraft. After several depth charge attacks a patch of oil was sighted and the Torpedo Boats claimed that a submarine had been sunk. It is believed that the submarine sunk was HMS P48. There were no survivors.
Stoker 1st Class Robert Reginald Gunn of 15, Finlay Street in Belfast died as a result of the depth charge attack on 25 December 1942. Eighteen year old Robert Gunn is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 82 Column 1.
One Response
This man is my uncle and I am named after him. So sad that he has no known grave. His actual age at his time of death was 18. He lied about his age to join the Navy. He was only 16 when he joined. His father Robert Reginald Gunn was also killed at sea in 1939 on board the fishing vessel Welvale.
Brave men (boys) doing a dangerous job.