Brian Birley Roberts

Brian Birley Roberts was born on 23 October 1912 at Bishopsgarth, Woking, Surrey. At the age of ten, he read In the realm of the Arctic poppy by Raymond Raife, inspiring his interest in polar exploration. He was educated at Uppingham School where he became particularly interested in ornithology and photography, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. While an undergraduate, he organized and led the Cambridge University Expedition to Vatnajokull in Iceland in 1932 and the Cambridge University Expedition to Scoresby Sund in East Greenland in 1933.

Roberts joined the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-1937 (leader John Rymill), as an ornithologist, spending the austral winter of 1935 at the Argentine Islands and, after an operation to remove his appendix, the following winter on South Georgia where he studied Antarctic birds and elephant seals. On his return to Britain, he worked on the scientific reports of the expedition and his ornithological results, receiving his doctorate in 1940.

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