242744 Lt. Wilfrid Robin Leigh Kent Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve HMS Manchester Lieutenant Kent joined HMS Manchester as the assistant electrical officer, at Scapa Flow in 1941. He served during the sinking of the Bismark and was in charge of the radar room where he recalled the disquiet of the radar operators who could see the shells from the Bismark on their screens. After serving in the evacuation of Norway and anti-invasion duties in the North Sea, Wilfrid was on the Manchester in July when it was part of Force X escorting the Malta convoy in which more ships were lost than any other. HMS Manchester was herself hit by an Italian aerial torpedo in the starboard side aft in the boiler room on 23 July 1941. His cabin was squashed by the blast and he had to sleep on the steel deck. His report on the ship's damaged electrical systems must have caught someone's eye, since he was flown back to Britain from Gibraltar in August 1941 to carry out research into high power electricity at HMS Vernon Torpedo School resulting in improvements in the design of shock absorbers for high voltage circuit breakers on warships. He was later promoted to Lieutenant Commander and led a secret team developing the first homing torpedoes.
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