Robert Roberts (Christadelphian) - Shorthand Writer and Reporter

Shorthand Writer and Reporter

When Robert Roberts was 17 he became shorthand writer for a modest paper, The Aberdeen Daily Telegraph, after which he worked as a casual reporter, once being called on to assist in reporting the speeches delivered at an investigation into the merits of the Suez Canal scheme, conducted by Aberdeen Town Council on the occasion of a visit by Ferdinand de Lesseps. He left Aberdeen for Edinburgh to work as a reporter on The Caledonian Mercury. Leaving Edinburgh 1858, he worked for The Examiner in Huddersfield, then briefly for the same employer in Dewsbury. Then he accepted a travelling assignment as shorthand writer for the American phrenologists, Orson Squire Fowler and Samuel R. Wells, who were visiting Huddersfield as part of a lecturing tour (Roberts later described phrenology as of similarly high value to his religious beliefs). He returned to his job on the Huddersfield Examiner in July 1861. During his time at The Examiner he was also appointed as the Huddersfield correspondent for The Leeds Mercury, The Halifax Courier, and The Manchester Examiner. In the winter of 1863-64 Robert Roberts moved to Birmingham, but failed in his attempt to set up a general reporting and advertising agency there. In 1864 he became a reporter for The Birmingham Daily Post, largely as a result of a testimonial from John Bright MP. In July 1865, he became a shorthand writer for the Birmingham Bankruptcy Court, working there until 1870, when a change in the Bankruptcy Act of 1869 brought an end to his appointment. Then, at the suggestion of Thomas, it was arranged that he should receive a salary for his Editorship of The Christadelphian Magazine, and so his career as a reporter came to an end.