Home page
Crafts
Family History
TV
Books
Lively Lil!
On the 10th of October 1914 at 200 Westminster Bridge Road, in the sub-district of Lambeth Church in London, a daughter was born to Henry Robert Roberts and his wife Mary. They named her Lilian Emily Roberts. The Roberts were a well-to-do family who owned a garage (The Westminster Bridge Garage and Works) at 198-200 Westminster Bridge Road in South East London.
The Westminster Bridge Road Garage and Works
Henry Robert Roberts was born on the 8th of July 1883 at 10 Plough Road in Rotherhithe, London to George and Emily Roberts (maiden name Godwin). He was an automobile engineer. He was known as Harry to his friends and family.
The Roberts family lived at 200 Westminster Bridge Road, in rooms above the garage. The ground floor of the building was showrooms, the first floor contained offices and the family lived in the top two floors. The building no longer exists, its location being under part of the Eurostar terminal of Waterloo Station. The family also had a house at Jerningham Road, New Cross. They may also have had a house in the country. The garage hired out cars to people going to the theatre, to race meetings and golf courses. It was also possible to hire a car for periods of between a day and a month. During the first world war the garage housed ambulances. The building had formerly been part of a boarding house (1891). The garage must have opened at some point between 1891 and 1910. The telephone number of the garage was HOP 351 and the telegram address was “UNHORSE, LONDON”.
Henry’s father, George Roberts, was a Coffee House keeper at the time of Henry’s birth, but had originally worked as a railway guard. He was from Abergavenny in Wales. It was after Henry’s mother Emily that my gran was given her middle name. It was from Emily’s father James Godwin that the family inherited the coffee house.
George Roberts at work in the coffee house
George Roberts and Emily Godwin had eight children in total.
The Roberts family
My gran’s mother, Mary Nicolson Stewart, was born on the 30th of April 1888 in Dundee. Her father, Charles Stewart, was a tailor. She was an accomplished highland dancer: she had won many medals. She went to London to work as a music hall artiste. She appeared on stage with Harry Lauder and it is rumoured that he may have written the song "I love a lassie", which contains the line “Mary, my Scots bluebell”, about her. At the time of her marriage she was living at 138 Lambeth Road. She and Harry Roberts married on the 27th April 1911 at Lambeth Register Office.
My gran, her older brothers George and Henry, and her younger sister Vera were cared for by a nanny, even when the family were on holiday. The Roberts family spent holidays at the seaside towns of Worthing in Surrey and Margate in Kent and had a boat. The children rode on donkeys and paddled in the sea.
Henry, Nanny and Lil
Henry Roberts died at 128 Westminster Bridge Road on the 7th of June 1917 aged 34. He had been ill for some time with stomach cancer. His wife Mary was at his bedside when he died. My gran was aged only three at the time, and in later life said that she had no memory of her father, although she remembered his funeral, which she and her brothers and sister attended. Mary’s sister Meg travelled to London from Scotland for the funeral. The value of the estate of Henry Robert Roberts was £126-0-4 and it was inherited by his wife Mary.
He was buried on the 12th of June 1917 in the family grave - in plot 84 of the picturesque Brookwood Cemetery, with its silver birches, copper beeches and rhododendrons, near Guildford in Surrey. This was not surprising since the London Necropolis Co., who owned the cemetery, had their headquarters at 121 Westminster Bridge Road, not far from the Roberts’ garage. Henry’s brother George who died at the Somme is also commemorated. Some years later his parents and brother William were also buried there. The cemetery is the largest in Britain and even has its own railway station.
After her husband’s death, Mary brought the children back to her home town of Dundee (by 1920). When the family moved to Dundee their lifestyle changed dramatically. She did not have a great deal of money. The family lived at 17 North Wellington Street. My gran and her sister Vera went down to London to visit their relatives when they were young women, but after that they seemed to lose touch with their English relatives.
My gran was one of the many young women who worked as weavers in the jute mills in Dundee. The mills turned bales of hemp brought by boat from India into rope, sacking and matting.
She was a keen sportswoman. She participated in ice skating and was a member of a swimming club. She was a member of the Lumphinnans Church Badminton Club. c. 1951 and of the prestigious Dunfermline Carnegie Badminton Club c. 1958.
She was a member of the Dundee Heatherbell Cycling Club in the 1930s which at that time was the only ladies’ cycling club in Scotland. The club was founded in 1929 and had about a hundred members in its heyday between the wars. When they went on weekend outings, the girls, mostly mill workers, would finish work at noon on Saturdays and be at Ninewells, complete with their bikes, in time for a 2 o’clock start. She was also a member of the Lumphinnans Cycling Club and it was through cycling that she met her husband whose father was a keen cyclist.
Both my gran and grandad were keen members of the Headwell Bowling Club in Dunfermline and participated in both indoor and outdoor bowls. At one point she was the President of the club. They travelled to Cliftonville (near Margate where she had spent childhood holidays) and Swansea, as well as all over Scotland, to compete in bowling competitions.
In 1977 she won all of the club competitions: Headwell Club Championship, Buchanan Cup, Pairs, President’s and Vice President’s Prizes. Some of the other competitions she won are listed below:
Club:
Triples
1978
R/up Pairs
1980
Pres & vice Pres
1977
Nomination Pairs
1979
Club Pairs
1979,1982
Headwell Club Championship Winner
1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981
Other:
Fife Pairs Championship winner
1981
EOS Pairs Championship losing quarter finalist
1980
Scottish championship triples losing quarter finalist
1982
Fours quarter finalist
1985
Fife Coal Board single-hand championship winner
1969, 1971, 1978, 1982, 1985
................................................................runner up
1977, 1979
Scottish Coal Board single-hand championship runner up
1982, 1978
.......................................................................Finalist r/up
1982, 1985
Fife NCB Senior Pairs Winner
1988
Scottish Senior Pairs Runner up
1988
In August 1992 The Dundee Courier and Advertiser described her as “Lively Lil” when she competed in a number of bowling competitions:
Lively LilLil Smith, of Headwell Bowling Club, may be into her mid-70s, but she has been showing younger bowlers all this week that experience counts.
Skipping a rink of Margaret Agnew, Jean Paterson and Anne Betts, she reached the last 32 of the Scottish championships at Ayr in two weeks' time by beating Lumphinnans 27-7 on Wednesday in the district finals.
Tuesday night saw her playing in the semi-finals of the Fife championships with Margaret Agnew, Barbara Johnstone and Margaret Stewart.
A 19-7 win over a Bowhill rink at Crossgates put them into Thursday's final against Scotscraig at Markinch where they lifted the title by the narrowest of margins, 12-11 on an extra end.
Not content with her success in rink competition, she and Jean Paterson have reached the finals of the Scottish Coal Board pairs championships on August 22, thanks to a win over a Lochore pair.
She was never afraid to take up a new sport, and was even photographed playing basketball on her 80th birthday!
Married Robert Smith (Rab) from Lumphinnans in Fife on the 5th of January 1940 in the District of St Andrew, Dundee by a warrant of the Sheriff-Substitute of Perth and Angus.
Robert Smith started an apprenticeship as a Turner with The Fife Coal Company Limited on the 4th September 1929, and completed it on the 4th September 1934 when he was discharged owing to excess of requirements. He served in the RAF as a Fitter IIA from 19/11/1935 to 9/11/1945. His rank was sergeant. He was stationed at the Royal Air Force Station in Wick, Caithness. During the second world war, he served in Iceland between the 29th of July 1941 and the 26th of July 1942 and in North Africa, Sudan and Eritrea (a province of Cambodia) between the 16th of July 1944 and the 20th of September 1945. During his time abroad he wrote numerous lengthy letters to his wife.
During 1940 or early 1941 she went to Wick and it was there, at 12 Wellington Street, that her first child, Marilyn Roberts Smith was born. On the birth certificate my gran’s name is misspelt as Lilyan.They stayed there until July 1941, then returned to 17 North Wellington Street in Dundee shortly before my grandad went to Iceland. In one of his letters he wrote:
I hope it only takes a couple of days to clear that rash that Marilyn has. As you say, of all things German measles, as if those Jerry’s haven’t given us enough trouble already.
Marilyn Roberts Smith and her parents
In April 1946, after the war was over, they went to stay with his parents at 39 Mungall Street, Lumphinnans. In September of that year they moved to 5 The Crescent, Lumphinnans. A few years later they had a son, Robert. In 19?? the Smith family moved house to 110 Leadside Crescent, Wellwood, Dunfermline, where they lived until January 1985. The house had three bedrooms, and a large back garden. Rab did woodwork in his hut, making dolls houses, etc.
Marilyn and Robert both married and had children. Marilyn and her husband moved to the new town of Glenrothes, while Robert and his wife Christine remained in Dunfermline. There are five grandchildren in all: Emma Diane Reid, Janie Smith, Paul Stewart Reid, Lynne Smith, Vicki Smith. She was very proud of her grandchildren, since the oldest four were at university, and Vicki was following in her grandmother’s footsteps as a keen sportswoman. She collected newspaper cuttings of her grandchildren’s achievements.
In January 1985 they moved to a ground floor flat at 18 Gladstone Place, Dunfermline. This was particularly convenient for them as it was only a short walk from Headwell Bowling Club.
Robert Smith died suddenly on the 15th of February 1988 (the same day as the famous physicist Richard Feynman died) of a heart attack at the bowling club at the age of 73.
She had not been a hospital patient since her son Robert was born. On a Sunday in June 1995 she became ill and was admitted to the coronary care unit at Queen Margaret Hospital on the Tuesday. When I went to visit her on the Thursday, her condition had deteriorated. She died at about 3am on the Sunday. The funeral service was held at Dunfermline Crematorium on June 15th at 2pm and very many family and friends attended, including a large number of members of the Headwell Bowling Club.
Peacefully, after a very short illness borne with great dignity, at Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline, on June 11, 1995, Lil, aged 80 years of 18 Gladstone Place, Dunfermline, a much loved wife of the late Rab, loving mother, mother-in-law and grandmother.
Over her lifetime, she had collected a large number of family photographs dating back to possibly as early as the 1870s, including a photograph album from London. In recent years she had annotated most of the photographs of her family. On one of the last occasions that I visited her house, we looked at all the photographs and certificates, and she talked about her youth.
More photos of the Roberts family
