Robert Spencer Allen

Biography
Mr. Robert Spencer Allen was born in the third quarter of 1876 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He was the son of customs officer William Henry Allen (1840 - 1923) and his wife Margaret Pedder (1846 - 1900) who had married in St Michael's Church in Liverpool on December 18th, 1857 and went to have thirteen children. Robert's siblings were; William Henry (1868 - ?), George (1870 - ?), Mary Frances (1871 - ?), Thomas (1873 - ?), Sarah Jane (1874 - ?), George (1879 - ?), Alfred (1881 - ?), Alice Maud (1883 - ?), Frederick Arthur (1885 - ?), Emily Elsie (1887 - ?), Harold (1889 - ?) and Ethel May (1893 - ?). He was baptised on November 12th, 1876 in St. Paul's Church.

Robert first appears on the 1881 census when he and his family were living at 11 Cromwell Street in Liverpool. By the time of the 1891, the Allen family had moved to 27 Hawkstone Street, still in Liverpool. Robert had already left school and worked as a shop boy.

In the early 1900's, Robert got married to Georgina Emily Jones (1878 - 1936), a girl from Salford, Lancashire. Together they had three children; Robert Spencer (April 13th, 1901 - November 23rd, 1923), Vera Laurabel (1902 - November 29th, 1940) and Clifford Leslie (1907 - 1934). Soon after their son Robert's birth, the family moved on Kenilworth Road, Southampton, Hampshire, England. On the 1911 census, Robert appears as a ship's steward.

When he signed on Titanic on Thursday April 4th, 1912, Robert gave his address as Kenilworth Road and his last ship as the R.M.S. Olympic. As a first class bedroom steward, he would receive monthly wages of £3, 15s. Robert perished in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

On April 28th, 1912, a death notice appeared in the Southern Daily Echo:

''ALLAN - April 15th, 1912, on the S.S. Titanic, Robert Spencer, the dearly beloved husband of Georgina Emily Allen, of Durlston, Keilworth Road, Southampton. Deeply mourned by his sorrowing wife and children. God be with you till we meet again.''

He is remembered on the family's headstone in Toxteth Park Cemetery, Liverpool, England in section CE4, plot 535.

His father, wife and children benefitted from the Titanic Relief Fund and moved to back to Liverpool. On December 1st, 1915, they received £7 9 6. Robert's son Robert followed in his father's footsteps and went to work at sea. Tragedy struck for a second time when, on November 23rd, 1923, he died at sea in what could have been the S.S. Otterburn Explosion.