Robert Wallace was born at 9 Lepper Street in Belfast, Ireland on 23 August 1886.¹ He was the son of Robert Wallace, an engine driver, and Elizabeth Todd and was the youngest of seven children. 

Robert initially pursued a career as a nurse and was described as such, and his address given as the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast when on 3 December 1911 he was married to Maria Gillespie (b. circa 1886) in Holy Trinity Parish Church. The couple’s first child, a daughter named Sarah, was born in August 1912 whilst they were residents of 6 Collyer Street, Belfast and Robert by then described as a labourer. 

Wallace’s ship prior to the Titanic had been the Olympic. He joined the Titanic at Belfast for the delivery trip to Southampton where he then disembarked.

Whilst Robert Wallace is known to have continued a career at sea into the 1920s, little else is known about his later life.