The Life of Robert Laidler (1879 – 1922)

Robert Laidler – c.1879–1922

Robert Laidler was born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, around April 1879, the son of Thomas Laidler and Sarah Alcock. His childhood was spent in the busy and closely packed streets of Monkwearmouth, an area where generations of families lived and worked alongside the River Wear.

Robert was baptised at St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth, on 20 April 1881, connecting him from an early age with one of the most historic buildings in the area. By the time Robert was growing up, Monkwearmouth was firmly at the heart of Sunderland’s industrial life. Shipbuilding, engineering and the industries surrounding the River Wear provided employment for thousands of local families.

By 1901, Robert was a young man of 21, living at 51 Millum Terrace with a large household. His working life had begun, and he was already employed as a blacksmith.

The census records give us glimpses into Robert’s early life. In 1881, aged just two, he was living with his family at 1 Back Dundas Street. Ten years later, in 1891, the family had moved to 12 Barrington Street, where Robert, aged eleven, was recorded as a scholar.

A skilled worker on the River Wear

Being a blacksmith in Edwardian Sunderland was an important and skilled occupation. Robert’s work would have required strength, accuracy and experience. Blacksmiths worked with iron and steel, heating metal until it was workable before hammering, shaping and cutting it to the required form.

In a city dominated by shipbuilding, these skills were particularly valuable.

Sunderland’s shipyards had transformed the River Wear into one of Britain’s great shipbuilding centres. By the late nineteenth century, the industry had moved increasingly from wooden ships to iron and steel construction. J. L. Thompson’s North Sands yard, for example, had developed into a major industrial complex, with Manor Quay providing facilities for fitting out and repairing vessels.

Robert’s career eventually brought him into this world. By 1911, he was living at 41 Horatio Street and was recorded as an engineer’s blacksmith. His work would have placed him amongst the men whose skills helped keep Sunderland’s great shipbuilding industry moving.

It is easy to imagine the working environment Robert knew: the noise of machinery, the clang of metal, the movement of men and materials around the yards, and the constant activity of the River Wear.

The First World War brought even greater demands upon Sunderland’s shipbuilding industry. Thompson’s was busy with the construction of cargo vessels and Admiralty work, while the town itself experienced the effects of war. Sunderland was attacked by a Zeppelin in April 1916, with Monkwearmouth among the areas affected.

For working families such as the Laidlers, the war would have been impossible to ignore.

Robert and Hannah

Around July 1904, Robert married Hannah Ward in Sunderland.

Hannah had been born in Monkwearmouth in 1881, and together they began building their family.

Their first child, Lilian Laidler, was born on 1 November 1905. Robert Laidler followed on 19 September 1908, and Thomas Matthew Laidler was born on 31 July 1912.

By the 1911 census, Robert and Hannah were living at 41 Horatio Street with their two children. Robert was 31 and working as an engineer’s blacksmith, while Hannah was caring for their young family.

For a few years, their family life continued in the familiar surroundings of Monkwearmouth.

But tragedy was approaching.

Hannah died on 1 March 1916 at 46 Millum Terrace, aged only 35. She was buried at Mere Knolls Cemetery, Fulwell, on 5 March 1916.

She left behind Robert and three young children.

The timing of her death makes the loss even more poignant. Sunderland was in the midst of the First World War, and only a month later Monkwearmouth would suffer the devastating Zeppelin raid of 1 April 1916.

A year after Hannah’s death, a memorial notice appeared in the Sunderland Daily Echo. Robert remembered his wife in words that reveal something of the depth of his grief, while the notice also remembered Hannah on behalf of her three children, Lilian, Robert and Thomas.

For those children, their mother’s death meant growing up without her. Lilian was only ten, Robert seven and little Thomas just three.

On 27 June 1919, at the Venerable Bede Church in Monkwearmouth, he married Alice Hampton, who was 27 years old. Robert was 40.

Alice had been born in Sunderland on 21 January 1892, the daughter of Joseph Hampton. At the time of their marriage she was living at 18 Colliery Square.

Together Robert and Alice had two daughters:

Catherine Laidler, born 27 January 1920, and
Sarah Laidler, born 5 May 1922.

The family lived at 48 Millum Terrace, the same address where Robert had been living after Hannah’s death.

By 1921, Robert was recorded as the head of an eight-person household. He was still working as a blacksmith, but times had become difficult. The census records him as out of work, with his last employer given as J. L. Thompson & Sons, Manor Quay, Sunderland.

This was a difficult period for Sunderland’s industrial workers. The post-war boom in shipbuilding was beginning to fade, and the industry would soon enter a prolonged downturn. For a skilled man whose livelihood depended upon the shipyards, the uncertainty of employment must have been worrying.

Yet Robert had a growing family to support.

A tragic end at the shipyard

Robert’s life came to a sudden and terrible end in May 1922.

On 17 May 1922, aged just 43, Robert was working at J. L. Thompson & Sons’ shipyard. He was involved in work cutting iron rods when a small piece of metal broke away from the machinery.

The accident was horrific.

Robert suffered a wound to the chest and was found bleeding heavily. Despite attempts to help him, he collapsed and was taken to the Monkwearmouth and Southwick Hospital.

He died shortly afterwards.

An inquest heard how the accident had happened and a post-mortem examination found that the metal had penetrated into his chest and torn a major vein. The cause of death was internal haemorrhage, and the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death whilst following his employment.

Robert was buried at Mere Knolls Cemetery on 22 May 1922, in Ward 13, Section A, Grave 3740.

He was only 43 years old.

A family left behind

Robert’s death must have been devastating for his family.

His eldest daughter, Lilian, was sixteen. Robert junior was thirteen. Thomas was only nine. His two daughters with Alice were even younger: Catherine was just two years old, while little Sarah had been born only twelve days before her father’s death.

That detail makes Robert’s story particularly heartbreaking. Sarah was still a tiny baby when her father died.

Alice was left to raise the children, carrying the memories of Robert and the life they had built together. The family continued to live in the Millum Terrace area, and Alice was recorded there again in later years.

Robert’s working life had been closely connected to the industries that shaped Sunderland. He had grown up in Monkwearmouth, learned a skilled trade and worked amongst the men of the River Wear shipyards. His life was one shared by many Sunderland families of the period — shaped by hard work, industry, family and the uncertainty that came with employment in a dangerous industrial world.

His story also reminds us that behind the great ships launched from Sunderland were thousands of ordinary men whose names rarely appeared in the histories of the shipyards.