Robert Harvey, who helped survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster, is returning to his roots in Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Mr Harvey, 61, maintains a maritime tradition by joining law firm Furley Page as a chartered legal executive.

He has more than 40 years’ experience as a personal injury lawyer, helping thousands of accident victims, including former dockyard workers making asbestosis claims.

Educated at Upbury Manor Secondary School and Maidstone and Holborn Colleges, he has enjoyed a long legal career but it could have all been so different. As a schoolboy in 1967, he passed the Dockyard Entrance Exam at Chatham.

A job as an apprentice shipwright beckoned but he was seduced by the legal profession and now, more than four decades later, returns to the dockyard at Furley Page’s Admiral’s Offices.

Harvey is a vocal advocate of the rights of innocent accident victims.

His most high-profile case involved representing three traumatised survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy in 1987 when 193 passengers and crew perished after the ferry capsized outside the port of Zeebrugge.

He says: “Sometimes as a personal injury lawyer, I’m the only one there to stand up for the victim.

“When there is a fatal accident case it can be the toughest job to deal with but helping the family left behind is the motivation which gets you through.”

Mr Harvey is married, and follows sport, including football – he is a lifelong Arsenal fan – and F1 motor racing.