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The race to name Willian Swanson Robertson OUR Dad was born on October 21st 1930 in the top floor flat at 25 Upper Grove Place in Edinburgh. He was the son of a tailoress and soldier. He was named after his Grandad William Swanson Robertson, a joiner who was born on October 26th 1858 in Leith near Edinburgh and died in 1913 at Newington where he is buried in the local cemetery.
That William Swanson was a typical austere Victorian head of the household as this picture taken in the early 1900s shows. Grandad had wed in Newington in Edinburgh on May 22nd 1882. His bride was May Pringle Tait who worked as a domestic servant at Hill Place in Edinburgh. Their first child, a daughter, they named Isabella Swanson Robertson was born in October 1882. She was named after her own grandmother Isabella Swanson who married journeyman cooper John Robertson in Wick in 1847. Granny Isabella had died aged just 51 two years before William and May's wedding. It was her father who was William Swanson. So the name William Swanson can be traced back to the early 1800s. Dad's Grandad and Granny Robertson had 14 children: Isabella
Swanson born 1882 When Grandad died tragically young in 1913 there was a race on between the Robertson siblings to have a son to be named after the fine man. Mutterings in the family indicate that Helen had a son out of wedlock who was called William Swanson Robertson but when she married nobody talked about what his real surname was. What of the boys' attempts to carry on the family name? Stephen married a schoolteacher called Bessie before joining the ill-fated 13th Battalion of the Royal Scots regiment. He survived the Battle of the Somme but was killed at Loos on September 14th 1918. John married Lillie and they had a daughter Jessica before he went off to fight for King and country. He too survived the Battle of the Somme and others and was much decorated for his bravery on the battlefields of Flanders. His medals are displayed in Edinburgh Castle. He returned in 1918 but his wife left him. Norman, a golf course green keeper, married Kate and had just one daughter. Bill, another William Swanson, looked a hopeful candidate when he wed a woman called Chrissie and went to America. He never came back but Chrissie did in 1929. Bill was never heard from him again. Uncle Jim (James Keith) went to Canada in 1927. He was he killed in Spanish Civil War at Catalonia in 1938. Uncle Bob was a hunchback who never married. So the race was on between William Swanson Robertson's two youngest sons to produce his namesake. Samuel Thomson Robertson was born in 1901 but doctored his birth certificate so he could follow his older brothers to the Great War. He joined up in 1917 and drove ambulances at the front. In 1927 their mother died without seeing the family name carried on. In August the following year Samuel Thomson married Molly Armstrong at 34 Chamber Street, Edinburgh. Best man was her brother John Armstrong and bridesmaid was Alison Brown. Samuel's address on the marriage certificate is 34 Upper Gray Street. He is described as a motor mechanic although his Army discharge papers indicate he served until November 1931. Molly gives her occupation as a tailoress from 45 Tower Street, Portobello. There was great excitement when she soon became pregnant and on September 5th 1929 Mary Harkness Robertson was born. Grandad Robertson's youngest son Thomas Henderson had in the meantime married Sally and they too were expecting. They hoped for a boy but sadly the baby died at birth. Tragedy also hit young Samuel and Molly. On Hogmanay 1929 Molly's beloved mother died. In the following month she fell pregnant again and on October 21st she gave birth to a boy. William Swanson Robertson, journalist, father-of-nine (Sam, Margaret, Bill, John, Drew, Anne, Craig, Grant and Blythe) and Granddad Robbie, was born. Research by Margaret Ginman (Robbie's first daughter, second child). We
would be delighted to include your memories.
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