Robert Riley was a US Army private (second class) who had an affair with Elsie Tanner in 1944 when husband Arnold Tanner was away with his war work in the Royal Navy.
Elsie's affair was discovered when the US military police came calling for Riley at 11 Coronation Street where he had been for the past week. He ran naked from the house but was trapped by a scandalised Ena Sharples outside the Glad Tidings Mission Hall who attacked him with a coal shovel while ordering her daughter Vera to close her eyes.
Two years later, before Arnold walked out on Elsie for good, he searched the house and found a love letter from Robert to Elsie and pocketed the missive. Fifteen years later, in January 1961, he returned to ask Elsie with a divorce and threatened her with the contents of the letter if she didn't agree.
- Robert was mentioned in Episode 12 (18th January 1961) with additional information coming from Daran Little's 1997 book "Coronation Street: Around The Houses".