Robert Price Lewis was born in Widnes, Lancashire on the 26th of January 1889, the son of Hugh and Hannah Lewis (née Jones). He was the second youngest of nine children. Robert was a member of the Royal Naval Reserve, a Chief Engineering Room Artificer on the Laurentic. 

His parents were born in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, where they lived until their sixth child was born in 1883. They then moved to Widnes, on the northern bank of the River Mersey, where  Hugh worked as a lime burner. Widness had grown rapidly in the mid 19th century, becoming a major centre of the chemical industry. The demand for labour was met by large-scale immigration from Ireland, Poland, Lithuania and Wales. The substances produced included soap, borax and bleaching powder. The town became heavily polluted with smoke and the by-products of the chemical processes. In 1888 the town was described as “the dirtiest, ugliest and most depressing town in England”.

Robert was five years old when his mother died in 1894, at the age of 43. His father died in 1906 and the siblings who still lived at home all remained together after their father’s death. At the time of the 1911 census Robert was living with his unmarried siblings Mary Ann, Hannah, Frederick and Albert at 8 Egypt Street, Widness. He was working as a fitter and turner in the local iron foundry.

Robert enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve on the 26th of October 1914 and  joined the crew of the Laurentic shortly after this, on the 22nd of November 1914. He was promoted to Chief Engineering Room Artificer on the 1st of February 1916. 

Robert’s body was never recovered. 

Robert Price Lewis is listed on the War Memorial in Victoria Park, Widnes, Cheshire, (Formerly Lancashire)

Sources:-

The British Newspaper Archive www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911. The National Archives of the UK
Royal Naval Service Records – National Archives  of the UK
General Register Office England and Wales  www.gro.gov.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widnes
Hardie, D. W. F., A History of the Chemical Industry in Widnes, Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, 1950.