Herbert Keeling Roberts, son of William Joseph Rogers and Louisa Bate, qualified in London as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS) in December 1903. On 19 November 1907 he was appointed as veterinary bacteriologist in the Department of Agriculture of the Orange River Colony (now the Free State), a position resorting under the chief veterinary surgeon of the colony, Albert G. Grist*. He held this post to 1910 or 1911, his headquarters being at Besters Put, near Petrusburg. After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 he moved to Pretoria. He was a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science in 1910, and a member of the Transvaal Veterinary Medical Association from 1908 to 1913.

On 17 October 1915 he married Dorothy Marguerite Cornish in London. They had one son.

List of sources:

Civil service list of the Orange River Colony, 1910.

Curson, H.H. The veterinary profession in South Africa... Transvaal Veterinary Medical Association. Journal of the South African Veterinary Medical Association, 1931, Vol. 2(1), pp. 3-22.

FamilySearch: Herbert Keeling Roberts. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L5N4-H8N/herbert-keeling-roberts-1882-1962

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Roberts, Herbert Keeling.

Orange River Colony, Department of Agriculture. Report, 1907/8 - 1909/10.

Posthumus, P.J. An index of veterinarians in South Africa, 4th edition. Pietermaritzburg: P.J. Posthumus, 1982.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1910, list of members.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-10-14 10:35:54