Captain Roberts
Frederick Roberts was born in 1882.
He was a larger than life adventurer and prospector who became a mining engineer in South Africa. On the outbreak of the First World War he returned to England to enlist in the army, meeting his wife Kate on the boat home.
He joined the 12th battalion of the Sherwood Foresters and fought in the Battle of Loos. In 1916 Captain Roberts and his friend Lieutenant Jack Pearson discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres. This inspired them to create a satirical trench newspaper entitled The Wipers Times, named after the British soldiers鈥� inability to pronounce 鈥淵pres鈥�.
The newspaper became a great success with its unique combination of subversive black humour, knockabout music-hall jokes, and poetry. The Wipers Times survived until the end of the war, as did Roberts and Pearson, who came through the Battle of the Somme and were both subsequently decorated for gallantry.
After the war Roberts returned to prospecting and died in Canada in 1964.
