Born in 1887, Roberts attended Brighton College before coming up to Pembroke College in 1906. He studied Classics and History, gaining his BA in 1909. During World War I, he served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk Regiment and was wounded in the Third Battle of Ypres. On his return to Cambridge he was Secretary of Cambridge University Press from 1922 to 1948, Master of Pembroke from 1948 to 1958, Vice-Chancellor of University of Cambridge from 1949 to 1951, and Chairman of the British Film Institute from 1952 to 1956. He was an author, publisher and biographer and a noted Sherlockian. He was knighted in 1958.