Robert was born in Lemington, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland in 1905. He was the second, but eldest surviving child of his parent’s marriage.
In July 1919, aged fourteen, he emigrated with his parents and two younger siblings to Australia.
Whether he returned to school on arrival in Australia is not certain. Once old enough to appear on electoral rolls he consistently gave his occupation as a labourer. Robert’s father and younger brother were bricklayers so perhaps Robert was working with them, or maybe he was working in one of the many mines in Illawarra.
On the 1930 electoral roll he was living in the same road as his parents, but it is unclear whether he and his young wife started their married life in a home of their own, or whether they were living with his parents.
Robert
had married Mavis Denniss, a local girl from Unanderra in August 1926 and they
were expecting their first child. He was twenty-one, starting a new chapter of
his life.
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