George Stephenson won world-wide acclaim with his “Rocket” but he said that much of the credit belonged to his son Robert. Robert supervised the building of the “Rocket”, and later improved some parts in its construction.
Father and son were always very friendly. Robert was born in 1803, and his mother died before he was three years old. This brought the boy nearer to his father.
One thought above all others was in George Stephenson’s mind: at all costs Robert should have some schooling. He worked long and hard to send the boy first to a village school, then to a school in Newcastle. Robert wore clothes made by his father and went to school on a donkey, because there was no money to buy a horse.
Robert’s first period of schooling ended when he was twelve, but during his few years of schooling he was a teacher as well a pupil, because what he learned by day he taught his father in the evening.
In 1815 George Stephenson invented a miner’s lamp − the Georgie lamp, as it is still called, for use in the mines. For this invention he was given a large sum of money and so he could send Robert to Edinburgh University for a six-month course. From that time on, for many years, father and son worked closely together.
In 1821, when George Stephenson was asked to make a survey for the Stockton to Darlington Railway, his chief assistant was Robert.
They worked closely together again when they built the Liverpool to Manchester Railway. Then, as George Stephenson grew older and could not work much, he watched with pride as Robert gained achievements on his own, without his father’s help.
Robert Stephenson built, for example, the Birmingham to London Railway, the first line to the British capital. For many years he built railways all over the world. Yet he is perhaps better remembered as a bridge-builder. He built bridges in Britain, in Canada and on the Nile.
A monument to father and son was erected in Westminster Abbey.