Robert Young Pickering

Pickering was born at Railway Cottage, Shildon, County Durham, England in 1849, the eldest son of John Pickering 1823 - 1900 and Elizabeth Young 1828 - 1890. Robert's father at the time of his birth was classified as a "British Teacher". Robert's only sibling Jonathan was born in 1855. By 1861 the family had moved from Railway Cottage to Main Street, Shildon. John Pickering had over the past ten years changed his profession from teacher to proprietor and head of an iron foundry employing 52 men and four boys.

In 1864 John Pickering moved his family to Scotland and set about constructing his new works in Netherton Wishaw Lanarkshire, which came on stream in 1865. Robert, aged 16, joined his father in the new operation in Wishaw, building railway carriages, wagons and carrying out repairs on rolling stock. In December 1868 at 3 Park Gardens, Glasgow, the home of his in-laws, Robert Young Pickering married Ellen Caldwell Anderson, the daughter of John Anderson, a wealthy Glasgow merchant. Robert and his wife remained at 3 Park Gardens living with her family into the 1880s, this was where his only child was born Robina Ellinor Graham (1873–1916). He lived with his family until 1896 at 19 Montgomerie Quadrant Kelvinside. He was involved with St Brides church adjacent to this building.