Robert Waterston was born on 29th January 1886 at Cannon Park, Grange Road, Edinburgh.
His father George was a gardener who had married Jane McGregor in Methven (between Perth and Crieff) in September 1883. George was from Kenmore in Perthshire and is listed in the Census as “G&E” i.e. he spoke Gaelic and English. Robert was the 3rd of their six children – Helen (‘Nellie’) and George were older; Margaret (‘Peggy’, I think), Elizabeth and John were younger.
The family had lived in North Leith for several years in the mid- to late 1880s but by the time of 1891 Census they lived near Biggar in the West Lodge of Carwood House. This sounds grand but the Lodge had three rooms!
In 1892 the family moved to Bearsden when George was employed as a gardener at a villa called Struan, Bearsden (31 Roman Road, demolished to make way for Roman Court) – the photo below is from the 1950s but would be very similar sixty years before. The camera is above Hillfoot, looking back along the line of Roman Road towards Bearsden Cross:
Struan is ringed in red – you can see the range of greenhouses available for gardening – and the Waterston family home at 1 Kirk Place is ringed in blue.
The 1901 shows all six children at home: Helen was a clerkess to a stationer (surely Gillie’s in Douglas Place?). George and Robert were message boys for a grocer’s (general duties, including home deliveries of goods ordered in the shop – probably for James Lindsay and Co, also in Douglas Place). Margaret was in domestic service, despite only being aged 13. Elizabeth and John were still at school.
We know very little about Robert’s younger years but in 1902 the local newspaper mentioned him winning a prize for attendance at the Boys’ Brigade (Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, 2nd May):
The main mention of the family name was his father, however, who won prizes at local shows for his roses, grapes, apples, ferns, cauliflowers, orchids, hyacinths, and many more.
Also in 1902 Robert’s elder sister, Helen, now a pupil-teacher, died at 1 Kirk Road of phthisis (tuberculosis), after an 18 month history. She was aged 18.
In 1908, George left his job at Struan and set up his own gardening business.
By 1910 Robert job was a gardener / domestic servant at Carrickarden.
He married on 4th November 1910 at 1 Kirk Place, Bearsden. He was aged 24 and his bride was 29. Her name was Mary Watson, a domestic servant from Morningside in Edinburgh.
In the 1911 Census, Robert and Mary lived at Carrickarden Lodge. Robert’s job was the same as the previous year, presumably working for Rosa Shepherd, 35, the owner of Carrickarden. By 1915 the house had passed to Robert Headrick, partner in the shipping firm of McLay and MacIntyre (they owned and rented ships).
Robert and Mary had two children, Anne Ingram and Robert, the latter born on 13th January 1914 at Carrickarden Lodge. Anne was born on 7th October 1911 but I cannot find her birth record.
Robert was probably called up to the army in 1916. His younger brother, John, was called up at the same time and we have a photo of him:
Having trained in the UK, Robert arrived in France around the end of June 1917 as a private soldier. He was assigned to the 1st/5th Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders, part of 153 Brigade in 51 Division.
They were planning an attack which started on the 31st July and is now referred to as the Battle of Pilckem Ridge. It’s better known as the first day of the campaign in Flanders, Belgium, that is known as Passchendaele. This map shows the area assigned to Robert’s battalion (red circle):
The battalion war diary records the men started from their camp at 9pm the previous evening (30th July) but because of the lack of features in the landscape, it did not arrive in position until just before the attack so it was a sleepless and probably anxious night for them. The attack was started by another battalion at 3.50 a.m. walking behind a barrage of shells, scheduled to advance at a fixed pace with the infantry able to advance. This is described in the battalion’s war diary:
Robert’s battalion was in the second wave and did not have an easy time. The defenders were warned by now and the Germans had prepared defences in depth, including farmhouse buildings reinforced with concrete concealing machine guns. These were cleared by a number of men firing their rifles rapidly at the target while others jumped from shell-hole to shell-hole round the sides to throw in hand-grenades.
It’s not known where Robert died – it could have been in the shelling of the start-line, or advancing, or in one of these attacks to clear a machine-gun.
This is a Google Earth view of the area today, looking in the direction the Gordon Highlanders attacked:
Robert’s body was recovered and buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery
See the bottom row but one of the form above.
This is the only photo we have of Robert (Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 31st August 1917):
And here is the cemetery where he was buried:
Postscript
In 1918 Robert’s brother, George, died aged 34. He was a labourer in a munitions works, living in Dennistoun. He was admitted to the Royal Infirmary with a perforated gastric ulcer and died of peritonitis and shock.
In the 1921 Census, Robert’s widow, Mary, and her two children lived at 1 Kirk Place in the flat next to Robert’s parents (and John, who lived with them). Mary was the cook at Bearsden Academy. George still worked as a jobbing gardener, and seems to have done so until his death in 1935 by which time the family lived at 5 Whitehurst, Bearsden (clipping from Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 8th March):
John and his sister Margaret lived at 5 Whitehurst into the 1960s, John dying in 1964 and Margaret in 1966.
Robert’s son, Robert, also made his living as a gardener (14 Stewart Terrace is currently the Bearsden Athletic Club (formerly 55BC) and Nail & Spa building):
He married at New Kilpatrick Parish Church in 1942 and seems to have left Bearsden in the late 1940s for Torbay to work at a (garden) nursery. His mother Mary may have moved with him.