Wilfrid Roberts

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Wilfrid Hubert Wace Roberts (28 August 1900 – 26 May 1991) was a British Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party.

Roberts was born to Alderman Charles Roberts, chairman of Cumberland County Council, and Lady Cecilia Roberts, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, and Balliol College, Oxford and became a farmer and a district councillor. He first stood, without success, for North Cumberland in 1931, losing by 1,277 votes. He became a Member of Parliament for the seat at the 1935 election, gaining his seat from the Conservatives.

At the time of the Spanish Civil War, he worked in the relief effort for Basque refugees, with Christopher Hill.[1]

A radical Liberal, he was a supporter of the Popular Front advocated by Sir Stafford Cripps, seeking an alliance between left-of-centre political forces. Having been commissioned in the Border Regiment, from 1941-42 he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Liberal Leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air.

At the 1950 general election, following boundary changes, Roberts contested the re-drawn seat of Penrith and the Border but lost to the Conservative. In the three previous elections, Labour had not opposed him but, in 1950, they intervened and cost him his seat. In 1956 he joined the Labour Party and at the 1959 election fought Hexham as a Labour candidate without success.