THE mysterious identity of a sailor, who sent a Christmas card to his best friend from the mighty HMS Hood, has been revealed.

In The Northern Echo on Thursday, Joan Leyland, of Sedgefield, County Durham appealed for information about the card sent to her late father, Cecil Franks, from the ship, which sank in May 1941.

The card, found among some old photographs, was signed by "Bob", but Mrs Leyland knew no more about the man or his connections with her father.

Avid Northern Echo reader Lillian Atley saw the appeal for information and recognised the mysterious Bob as her brother, William Harkess, who went down with HMS Hood.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when I opened the paper and saw his photograph.

"I have a Christmas card identical to the one sent to Mr Franks, as well as another one with two dogs on it, which was also sent from HMS Hood to my other brother Thomas, when he was in Burma."

William Harkess, known as Robbie by his family, left the pits in 1938 to sign up to the Navy.

He was 23 when HMS Hood was involved in a battle with the German battleship Bismark and was sunk.

There were only three British survivors of the terrible battle. Sadly, Mr Harkess was among the 1,416 who perished.

Mrs Atley is the youngest of seven children and only five of them are still alive. The family were born and brought up in Horden, near Peterlee where Mrs Atley lives in one of the old miners' cottages.

Mrs Leyland believes her father may have met Mr Harkess in Horden as his family lived there for a while before moving to Durham.

Amazingly her father's two brothers, Ernest and Lesley, still live in Horden.

Mrs Leyland said: "It is great to hear a bit more about Bob. It would be lovely to meet Mrs Atley to talk about our relations and see if there are any more connections between our two families."