Robert Rogers White

 Stoker Robert Rogers White – Royal Naval Reserve, H.M.S. Vivid

Early Life

Robert Rogers White was born in Swansea in 1872, the son of Robert White and Margaret Emma Thomas, who had married in 1865. Margaret had previously been married to Henry Northey in 1840; Henry died in 1872 and was buried at Babell Chapel, Cwmbwrla.

1881 Census

Robert first appears on the 1881 Census, when the White family lived at 8 Pottery Street, Swansea. His father worked as a general labourer, and his mother managed the household. The children included Ester Ann Northey (from Margaret’s first marriage), Elizabeth J., John H., Robert, Mary A., Margaret R., and Richard D.

1891 Census

By the 1891 Census, the family had moved to 128 Llangyfelach Street, where Robert, then aged 19, was recorded as a general labourer.

In 1910, Robert married Jane Davies in Swansea.

Military Service

With the outbreak of the First World War, Robert enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was posted to H.M.S. Vivid, the Royal Navy’s shore establishment at Devonport, Plymouth.

H.M.S. Vivid was a shore-based barracks and training centre, not a seagoing vessel. It served as the administrative home for many reservists and sailors awaiting draft to ships. Stokers like Robert carried out strenuous work in boiler rooms, maintaining the coal-fired engines that powered Royal Navy ships.

Death

On 4^th January 1915, Robert died while onboard the Edinburgh Castle, having been found unconscious in the water alongside the ship.

H.M.S. Edinburgh Castle

H.M.S. Edinburgh Castle 

The Edinburgh Castle was a Union-Castle Line passenger and mail ship, launched in 1910 to serve routes to South Africa. At the outbreak of the First World War, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an Armed Merchant Cruiser.

Her role was to patrol sea lanes, escort convoys, and support the Royal Navy’s blockade operations. With her large size and relatively high speed for the time, she was well-suited for auxiliary duties, freeing up purpose-built warships for direct combat operations. Like many converted liners, the Edinburgh Castle symbolised the way Britain mobilised not only its navy but also its merchant and passenger fleets in the war effort.

It was aboard this ship that Robert’s service came to a tragic end.

Records

British Army and Navy, Birth, Marriage, and Death Records

Robert’s name is preserved in the British Army and Navy, Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, which document the service and sacrifice of men and women during wartime. These entries provide confirmation of his service with the Royal Naval Reserve, his death in 1915, and his place within both his family history and the wider national story of the First World War.

Burial

Robert White
Royal Naval Reserve, H.M.S. Vivid
credit - findagrave

Robert was buried on 10^th January 1915 at St. Peter’s Church, Cockett, marking the church’s first recorded military burial.

Legacy

Though his life ended in the early months of the war, Robert Rogers White’s service with the Royal Naval Reserve links him to two important naval establishments of the time: H.M.S. Vivid, where countless sailors trained and were administered, and H.M.S. Edinburgh Castle, one of the many civilian ships pressed into wartime service. His grave at St. Peter’s stands as a reminder of his sacrifice and as part of the parish’s enduring wartime history.