Collectors Print - HMS Kelly by Marine and Aviation Artist Robert Taylor

Published in 1979 this superb and very rare print depicts Captain Lord Mounbattens famous ship HMS Kelly and comes ready framed. Early sold out prints of Robert Taylor artwork are highly collectable with many signed good pieces fetching over £1000, so if you come across an early Robert Taylor print elsewhere add it to your collection.       

History of HMS Kelly
After War was declared on 3 September 1939 HMS Kelly was straight into the thick of the conflict. The following day together with HMS Acheron she helped to sink a u-boat and on 12 September HMS Kelly brought the Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII) back to England from Le Havre.

During her short career the ‘Kelly’ suffered a lot of bad luck. In December 1939 her stern was damaged after she struck a German mine just off the River Tyne. Repairs were not completed until the following February. Much worse was to come. On 9 May 1940, while searching for German minelayers in the North Sea, she was torpedoed with the loss of 27 lives. Many of these men are buried in Hebburn Cemetery.

HMS Kelly was assessed and the necessary repairs carried out by the workers at Hawthorn Leslie.

The repairs were completed and the ‘Kelly’ returned to service in December 1940. By May 1941 she was leading the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean. Tragically, on 23 May while returning to Alexandria she was bombed and sunk by the Luftwaffe. Survivors were picked up by HMS Kipling but the loss of life was terrible. One hundred and thirty men were killed and they are remembered in memorials at Hebburn Cemetery, together with the 27 crew members who perished in May 1940.