Personal information

Son of William and Christabel Keene, of Stroud, Gloucestershire; husband of Lorna E. Keene, of Stroud. He had been on watch on the port side of the bridge of Marit when the ship was torpedoed and was thrown over the pillbox, landing on deck on his back with a foot jammed between the keel of a lifeboat and the deck. The gunner walked to a lifeboat himself after the second mate, who was the officer on watch, had cut his shoe off him to get him loose. Herbert E. Keene died from interna injuries at the RAF hospital in Benghazi on 6 Oct, 1943.