Robert Verners-Jeffreys was born in Southampton on 6 August 1912, the son of Cdr Robert Jeffreys, Royal Navy and Mrs Dorothy May Jeffreys (later Verner-Jeffreys) – Cdr Robert Jeffreys was lost in HMS CLAN MACNAUGHTON in February 1915. Robert David Verners-Jeffreys joined the Royal Navy on 1 January 1931 and was appointed to the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham for the (E) Course on 15 January 1931. He was promoted to Sub Lieutenant (E) on 1 May 1933. He was appointed to the battleship HMS VALIANT on 9 January 1935 and promoted to Lieutenant (E) on 16 May 1936.

He joined submarines on 30 August 1937 when he was appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course‘. On 1 November 1938, he was appointed to HMS RAINBOW as the Engineer. On 24 April 1940 he was appointed to HMS RORQUAL as the Engineer. This was followed by an appointment to HMS TRAVELLER as the Engineering Officer on 5 November 1940. On 28 November 1942, TRAVELLER left Malta to conduct a reconnaissance patrol off the coast of Taranto as part of Operation Portcullis (a chariot attack on Italian battleships in Taranto Harbour). TRAVELLER did not return from the operation and was assumed to have been lost with all hands, probably mined, on or about 4 December 1942.

Robert Verner-Jeffreys was the husband of Audrey Marion Verner-Jeffreys (nee Bray), and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel No. 62 Column No.1 and on the Second World War Memorial in Ewhurst Recreation Ground in Surrey.