Robert Downs Haworth was born, the elder of two sons, to John Thomas Haworth and his wife, Emily, at Cheadle, Cheshire, a few miles southwest of Manchester on 15 March 1898, where his father was headmaster of the National School. His father’s two brothers, Robert and James, as well as a sister Fanny, all became school teachers. The Haworths hailed from Haslingden in Lancashire and were shoemakers for three generations. John Thomas and his father, as well as his two brothers, Robert and James, were well known as violinist, conductor, organist and oboist respectively in a Haslingden music group. Although Robert was not an executive musician he had a lifelong interest in music. John Thomas and his first wife, Elizabeth Ann, lost three children in as many years and she died when the third was born. Two years later he married Emily Downs, the fourth daughter of Robert Downs, blacksmith and wheelwright of Cheadle, and headmistress of the infant section of the National School. His early death in 1906 after a cycling accident may well have been caused by a stroke as he had been ill for two years. Fortunately Emily could resume teaching as headmistress of the Junior School at Cheadle and later in charge of the newly established Council School at Cheadle Heath, Stockport, all the time being able to leave her two boys in the care of her three elder sisters, all unmarried.
The Issue of Professionalization of Hungarian National School Teachers Exampled in the Encyclopedia of Teaching at National School in 1913-1915