Robert Stephenson was born on 16 October 1803. He was the only son of the famous locomotive engineer, George Stephenson. When he was 11, Robert went to a private school in Newcastle called the Bruce Academy.

Robert left school in 1819 when he was 16, and went to work at the Killingworth Colliery, where his father also worked. Three years later, Robert worked with his father on the Stockton and Darlington line. In 1823, Robert, his father and two others, Edward Pease and Michael Longdridge, formed a company to make locomotives.

Called Robert Stephenson & Company, it was the first locomotive builders in the world. To gain more experience, Robert went to Columbia in South America the following year where he worked in gold and silver mines. While he was there, he met Richard Trevithick.

Robert returned to England three years later. At the time a new railway was being planned to run between Liverpool and Manchester. The owners of the company building this railway decided to hold a competition for people to design a new locomotive to be used on it. The prize for the winner was £500. The competition was held at Rainhill in October 1829. All the locomotives had to travel about the same distance as the return trip between Liverpool and Manchester at a speed of at least 10 miles per hour. Robert and his father built a locomotive to enter in the competition that was called 'The Rocket'. There were two others entered but 'The Rocket' was chosen above both of them as the winner.

In 1833 Robert Stephenson was appointed chief engineer of the London and Birmingham Line, which was the first railway to run into London. This line was completed in 1838 and over the next few years Robert was involved in building many railways and bridges around the world. One of these bridges was over the St Lawrence at Montreal in Canada and for many years this was the longest bridge in the world.

Robert Stephenson became the MP for Whitby in the 1847 General Election, but in 1859 he was told to retire from business and politics because he was ill.

Robert Stephenson died on 12 October 1859.