Robert Nightingale
Chairman of Aspull Urban District Council 1937/38 & 1938/39
Elected Chairman 22 April 1937, re-elected 21 April 1938
b 1877 Aspull
Parents: Joseph Nightingale, Collier, and Mary (formerly Hayes)
m 1903 Mary daughter of Ralph Rainford, Collier, and Anne (formerly Melling)
children: One Son
d 1944 Wigan, Mary 1949, Abram
Robert Nightingale was the fourth child in a family of three daughters and two sons. One daughter and his brother died in infancy. Robert was a miner and lived most of his life in New Springs, in his younger days he played Association Football. In 1903 he married Mary Rainford and they had one son, Joseph Ralph.
On 1st October 1910 Robert sailed from Liverpool to Quebec, Canada, on the White Star Liner Megantic, arriving there on the 9th October. Sailing with him were fellow miners James Rainford, John Gibson and Thomas Ives. Their ticket numbers are sequential so they were probably workmates, Robert had a brother-in-law named James Rainford.
Robert returned home in August 1912. Two days out from Montreal, off the coast of Newfoundland, the ship ran into heavy fog and reduced speed to dead slow. An iceberg loomed out of the fog and the engine room was ordered to full astern but it was too late to avoid a collision. The ship suffered damage to her bows and took on 19 feet of water and 100 tons of ice. The boats were prepared for launch and the watertight doors closed. The steamers Lake Champlain and Scandinavian altered course and hurried to assist but were not needed and the liner was able complete her journey home.
No doubt with memories of the Titanic disaster, only a few months before, in their minds the passengers praised the Captain for the way in which the incident had been handled and presented him with a gold watch.
Robert returned to Aspull and work in the coal mines. He was a strong supporter of the Trade Union movement and one time member of the Plank Lane branch of the Cheshire and Lancashire Miners’ Federation and a member of the Free Shepherd Lodge, Aspull, becoming its treasurer in 1918.
In 1931 he was elected as a Labour Party member for New Springs Ward of Aspull Urban District Council. He was the first president of New Springs Labour Club and a member of the Aspull Wesleyan Burial Society.
In 1937 he was elected chairman of Aspull District Council, serving in this capacity for two years. He served as chairman of the Finance Committee and Highways and Lighting Committee, represented the Council on the Aspull, Blackrod, Horwich and Westhoughton Joint Hospital Board and was a member of the Food Control Committee and the Borsdane Wood Joint Committee.
In 1939 Robert and Mary were living at 21 Withington Lane, New Springs, Robert died in 1944 and following a funeral service at St John the Baptist, New Springs, was buried in Haigh St David’s Churchyard. Mary died in 1949 and buried alongside Robert in St David’s Churchyard.
Author: Peter Walker
Sources:
Aspull Urban District Council Minutes
Haigh and Aspull Parish Church Magazine Jan 1945 & May 1949
Wigan Observer 27 April 1937 p6e Appointed Chairman
Wigan Observer 1 May 1937 p11c Biography (Photo)
Wigan Observer 23 December 1944 p5g Obituary
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 13 August 1912 and Dundee Courier 22 August 1912 © British Library on findmypast.co.uk (Subscription required)
Ancestry.com (Free at Museum of Wigan Life)
Findmypast.co.uk (subscription required)