Background
Roberts was born in Birkenhead on 3 April 1887.
Roberts was born in Birkenhead on 3 April 1887.
He attended Brighton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge.
During the first world war he served as Lieutenant in the Suffolk Regiment. He was Secretary of Cambridge University Press from 1922 to 1948, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge 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, being president of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.
According to Jon Lellenberg, Roberts is responsible for the popularization of the Sherlockian game of criticism.
He was conferred the Honour of Knighthood in 1958
Three portraits of South. C. Roberts, 1949, by Elliott & Fry, can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Roberts was stepfather to Hugh Swann, cabinet maker to Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and Michael Swann, former chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation.