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Robert E Line Snr. (1833 - 1877) |
Robert Emerson Line was born in Newton Longville , Buckinghamshire on 13th July 1833. At the age of 22 he moved to London to join the London Fire Brigade. Before that he worked as a farm labourer. He was enrolled as a Fireman 2nd Class on July 23rd 1855 at the Regent Street Fire Station (see service record) and was noted as being 5ft 6 1/2 in tall. He married Emma Ann Emerson on the 20th March 1856 at St Mary`s parish church in Lambeth. Emma was described as a minor being then aged under 21.They had eight children - see page bottom. Robert Emerson Line died at his home at 283 Bethnal Green Road in South London on the 23rd June 1877 having contracted "malignant typhoid fever" four days earlier. He was aged 44. Eight years after the death of Robert Emerson Line, Emma remarried. Her second husband was railway engineer Joseph Moseley. The wedding took place on 2nd May 1885 at St Mary`s parish church in Lambeth. At some point they moved to 17 Mason Terrace in Herne Bay, Kent. She died from chronic nephritis and influenza uraemia on the 6th May 1908 aged 72 at her Herne Bay home.. |
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Service Record Promotions 23rd July 1855 - Fireman 2nd Class 23rd July 1858 - Fireman 1st Class 16th March 1863 - sub-Engineer 30th November 1866 - Engineer Appointments and injuries 23rd July 1855 - Regent Street Station 28th July 1855 - Removed to Tooley Street Station May 1856 - Removed to Southwark Bridge Road Oct 1857 - Appointed to a special duty at the float (this was a barge fitted with a steam pump to supply Thames river water to the brigade - an early fire boat) July 1861 - Appointed to take charge of Land Steam Fire Engine July 1861 - Removed to Nellclove Square (?) Station (possible mis-spelling as no trace of the location - or perhaps it no longer exists) 22nd March 1865 - Severely burned at a fire in Leman Street, Whitechapel 26th July 1866 - Removed to South Hackney. Officer-in-Charge 24th January 1868 - Removed to King Street (Regent Street) 24th January 1870 - Tendon of left leg broken at a fire in Oxford Street 1st June 1870 - Removed to Bayswater Station. Officer-in-Charge 6th July 1871 - Removed to Tooley Street Fire Engine Station. Officer-in-Charge 14th March 1877 - Removed to Bethnal Green Fire Engine Station. Officer-in-Charge 23rd June 1877 - Died of Typhoid Fever, the widow has been granted a gratuity of £35 .0 .0
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This photograph of the memorial to James Braidwood, Fire Chief of London during the conflagration at Tooley Street near Tower Bridge, London, in 1861, was pasted into a family album with an attached note saying "he had something to do with the Line family". It was probably only because Braidwood was Robert Emerson Line`s ultimate superior officer. Braidwood was killed in the early stages of the fire when a wall collapsed on him. Warehouses in Tooley Street blazed for two days before virtually every fireman in London, including Robert according to the London Fire Brigade, brought it under control. It was a full two weeks before the fire was fully damped down (see picture opposite). Family legend had it that the gutters in Tooley Street were running with burning candle wax - a story which has been handed down to the present generation. |
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Children Robert Emerson (1857) Henry (1858) Anne (1862) Thomas (1863) Charlotte (1867) Louisa (1867) Emma Maude (1870) (photo) Clara (1871) Pictured above is Emma Maude Bishop - daughter of Robert Emerson Line Snr - probably photographed sometime during the mid 1930s. She married William Alfred Bishop in September 1895 in Lambeth. William was three years her junior and worked as an insurance agent. According to the 1901 census they had no children. On the reverse is a Christmas greeting to nephew Thomas William Line.
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