SCT-EDINBURGH-L Archives

From: "John Storm Roberts" <>
Subject: [EDB] SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 10:17:28 -0400

Does anybody by any chance have easy access to copies of the Scotsman
1906-1939? If so, I have a somewhat onerous request that might particularly
interest a journalist or historian.

My grandfather, PBM Roberts, went from the Dundee Advertiser in 1906 to
become the London correspondent of The Scotsman, a job he held till shortly
before WWII. During that time he became President of the Lobby Club (the
Parliamentary journalists' body for negotiating with the Parliamentary
bureaucracy) and more germanely for many years wrote a signed column.

I have never seen anything he wrote except a personal memoir for his kids,
yet Parliament and its doings were his life to the exclusion of almost
everything except buying books he couldn't afford. I have a library edition
of Thomas Hardy that he couldn't resist. My grandmother found it when she
showed up in his office in his absence to have lunch with him. He hadn't
dared bring it home! (guilt, not fear. She was no dragon). It was freelance
reviewing, incidentally, that sent the first generation of his family to
university and medical school.

I should very dearly love to have copies of a few of his columns. If there
is somebody who can without undue hassle copy them, it might be really
interesting to have some from crucial moments in history -- WWI, perhaps the
General Strike, Munich? I should of course be more than delighted to pay for
any Xeroxing -- and have an English account so I can so so without
complications.

With best wishes to all,

John Storm Roberts

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• [EDB] SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER by "John Storm Roberts" <>