Heroic Death Far From Home
Robert Shields: 1875-1901
When John
and Laurel Aird visited John’s aunt Ruth Shields McNiven several decades ago,
they spent time discussing the history of the Shields family. Ruth’s brief
summary of her youngest uncle’s life caught my attention: “Robert was a
chemist. Died in Burma at 26, in an oil company fire, saving others.”
A tragedy
in two short sentences. So young. So heroic. And sadly, so dead. So what else
can we learn about Robert Shields? How did a young Scotsman end up in Burma?
Robert
Shields, youngest in the family, was born to Thomas Shields and Margaret
Sutherland Shields in either 1875 or 1876. No one has found a birth record for
him yet. He first appears in records in the 1891 census, living with his
siblings Thomas and Effie at 12 Kings Crescent in the Cathcart area of Glasgow.
He is listed as a “scholar”. Then age sixteen, he may have already been enrolled
at the University of Glasgow. That would explain why he was living with Thomas
Shields, who was working at the University as a “demonstrator in physics”.
Presumably Robert had followed his brothers to Gartsherrie Academy for his
pre-university education.
I have reviewed graduate records from
the University of Glasgow, but found none for Robert. I believe that “graduate”
records may refer only to advanced degrees, however. It is also possible that Robert
could have followed Thomas when he became a lecturer at Yorkshire College in
Leeds, and Robert could have completed his degree there. His degree was
probably the British equivalent of an undergraduate degree in the field of
either chemistry or chemical engineering. I base this hypothesis in part on
Ruth’s claim that he was a chemist, in part on another relative’s claim that he
was an engineer, and in part due to his employment at an oil refinery, an
appropriate job for a chemical engineer.
So why did Robert take a job in
Burma? It turns out that Scottish companies were investing in Burma in the late
1800s. Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History notes”
“[In] 1876 David Sime
Cargill, after visiting Burma, purchased the Glasgow-based Rangoon Oil Co Ltd,
which had failed because the King of Upper Burma was using his monopoly power
to overcharge for crude oil found in his territory…Over the next ten years
Cargill supported the loss-making refining and distribution activities from his
own pocket, to the extent of £100,000.”
Burmah Oil Company fields--early 1900s
The pandaw.com blog further
described the history of the Burmese oil fields and refineries:
“Since 1858 there had
been a small refinery at Rangoon, using Yenangyaung crude as feedstock and
exporting products to Europe and India. By 1871 it was in financial trouble and
its assets were bought by a group of Scottish businessmen who registered a new
company in Edinburgh, the Rangoon Oil Company…The annexation of Upper Burma in
the 1886 Third Anglo-Burma War meant that the whole country, formerly the
Kingdom of Ava, was now a part of British India administered locally by a Chief
Commissioner in Rangoon.
It was a major
milestone in the evolution of Myanmar's petroleum industry, ushering in the
modern era. In that same year, 1886, David Cargill, who was the principal
shareholder of Rangoon Oil Company, sold it to another Scottish-registered
company founded in the same year, Burmah Oil Company, which had technical links
back home to the East Midlothian shale-oil industry. Cargill thereby acquired
an interest and became Chairman of the new company.
With new deep wells
and even the helmet-equipped well-diggers contributing to production growth,
Burmah Oil's refinery capacity needed to expand. Its original refinery was at
Dunneedaw near Rangoon, but then a second was built at Syriam, south of
Rangoon, which in due course became the company's main refinery. Later a
pipeline from the oilfields to these refineries was built in 1908.”
Moving machinery at Burmah Oil Co. fields near Rangoon--1910s
With his background in chemistry and/or engineering, Robert would have been a valuable addition to Burmah Oil’s refinery staff. Here is a transcription of a job posting for such a position, showing that the company was looking for responsible, experienced, single Scotsmen.
Photos from the era show large groups of young, male, British
employees at the Syriam refinery and in the greater Rangoon area, so he would
have had a pleasant ex-patriate lifestyle with plenty of friends. Robert’s
father and siblings had set a precedent of working abroad, so I’m sure Robert
saw employment in Burma as an attractive opportunity.
 |
| Tennis players in Syriam, site of a Burmah Oil refinery. All young British men. |
It is unclear at which of the two
Rangoon area refineries Robert was employed, nor is it clear how long he had
been in Burma before his death. I found no records online regarding his employment.
The only record I have found is the death record, stating he died May 8, 1901
in Rangoon. Nor have I found a record of an explosion or fire in Rangoon in May
1901; the accident apparently did not rate a mention in the international
press. I don’t know how many people were injured or killed in the refinery fire
in addition to Robert, or whether he was successful in saving any others.
Laurel and John never asked Ruth how the family found out about his fate or
whether there were any other details regarding the fire. I found photos of a
similar disaster at a Texas refinery in 1901; the photo below shows how
terrifying and devastating a fire at an oil processing facility can be.
 |
| Refinery fire in Texas, 1900. |
The death record states that Robert
is buried in “Rangoon, Bengal, India”. This makes no sense, as Rangoon is in Burma/Myanmar,
while Bengal, India is over 1,300 miles away. I am hypothesizing that the
office that processed death records for British citizens in the Asian and
Indian colonies was located in Bengal, India, and that Robert actually died and
was buried in Rangoon. I have been unable to learn the location of his grave.
I wish there was more information
about this young man. I also wish there was a photo of him. His death was
tragic enough, but having his whole brief life summarized in a couple of
quickly forgettable sentences is even more of a tragedy.
Sources:
Rangoon Oil Co. History https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rangoon_Oil_Co
https://www.pandaw.com/blog/cruise/history-of-oil-production-in-the-irrawaddy-valley
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/1a/6a/611a6aa2fa48393fa3ff19406627e72c.jpg
Photos of Burmah Oil Company oil fields taken by Alfred
Knight in 1920s. From family history blog: http://www.hotten.net/open/pages/families/knight/photoalbums/burma/homebuilding.htm#row4
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