Archibald Robertson, Bishop of Exeter from 1903 to 1916, was a scholar and churchman whose tenure coincided with a period of rapid change in Plymouth. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and later Principal of King’s College London, Robertson brought both academic distinction and pastoral authority to his role as bishop. His connection to Plymouth is most clearly seen in his involvement with the Church Extension Committee, which sought to provide new places of worship in areas where the population was expanding.
By the early twentieth century, Laira was undergoing transformation. The opening of the Great Western Railway works in 1901 drew workers and families into what had previously been farmland and hedgerows. The district was not yet part of Plymouth borough, but its growth was anticipated as the three towns of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse moved toward amalgamation. Robertson recognised the need for new churches to serve these communities, and St Mary’s at Laira became one of the projects supported by the Diocese.
In September 1911, Robertson presided over the ceremony in which Mrs Lucy Clark of Efford Manor laid the foundation stone of St Mary’s Church. The event symbolised the Diocese’s commitment to ensuring that new populations had access to Anglican worship and pastoral care. The church was designed in the Anglo-Catholic Gothic style, reflecting Lucy Clark’s preferences, but it was Robertson’s presence that gave the ceremony its ecclesiastical authority.
St Mary’s opened in June 1914, just four days after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The outbreak of war meant that the church was never completed as originally planned, its grand entrance left unfinished. Robertson’s leadership during these years helped guide parishes through the challenges of wartime mobilisation, when resources were diverted to national defence and local projects were curtailed.
Robertson’s connection to Plymouth was also marked by personal contrasts. His son, Archibald Robertson junior, became a civil servant during the war but grew disillusioned, turning to atheism and later communism. This divergence between father and son reflected the intellectual and spiritual debates of the era, debates that resonated in industrial communities like Laira where faith, politics, and social change were deeply intertwined.
By the time Robertson retired in 1916, the Diocese of Exeter had been reshaped by both urban growth and global conflict. His role in Plymouth, and particularly at Laira, remains a reminder of how the Church sought to anchor new communities in tradition and faith, even as the world around them shifted dramatically.
