 Robert Adam was born on 1 January 1885 at the Evangelical Union manse in Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to the reverend John Adam (1841 – c. 1916) of the Evangelical Union church, and his wife Isabella Adam (née Moyes).His childhood was spent in Edinburgh where his father was a minister at the Kirk Memorial, Abbeymount.He acquired his first camera, a quarter plate model, when he was fourteen and acquired a half plate camera in 1908 that was made to his specification.