Robert M. Roberts (58-63), known throughout his life as Bob, died in October or November
2024. He was in his late-70s. A copy of the latest issue of The Pangbournian was returned to
the College marked ‘deceased.’ We have no further details.

At the Nautical College Bob was a Cadet Captain in Illawarra and a member of Form VI Sci.
For two years, 1961 and 1963, he won the Victor Ludorum award as the best all-round athlete
in the school. Above all, he was an outstanding three-quarter in both the 1961 and 1962 1st
XVs.

The 1962 side has a sound claim to be the most successful rugby team that Pangbourne has
ever produced, playing 13 games and winning them all. Roberts was the left wing and scored
no less than 29 tries. A profile of Bob written by the side’s coach, Lionel Stephens, in the
Winter Term 1962 Log states: “His speed and body swerve were too much for ordinary
opposition. He has a good pair of hands and can beat his opposite number with ease and
covering forwards with a quick turn infield. He tackled strongly. He was the outstanding
success of the side.”

The team attracted national attention. In one press report, The Sunday Telegraph described
Roberts as “a real flyer. For its part The Times, which covered the side’s climactic final game
against a similarly unbeaten Duke of York’s Royal Military School XV at Blackheath RFC’s
Rectory Field, reported how Bob “ran with great speed from the half-way line” to score the
decisive try after “a magnificent game” which gave Pangbourne at 13-3 victory. In 2016 Bob
spent three months unearthing the surviving members of this side, and arranged a hugely
successful reunion of 12 of them in conjunction with the OP centenary dinner held at the
College the following year.

An England Under 19 XV trialist in 1963, Roberts went into the Royal Marines after
Pangbourne. He saw active service in Aden with 45 Commando as a troop commander on the
Yemen border. In 1965, he represented the Royal Navy (alongside Jeremy Ainslie 55-59) in
the inter-services rugby tournament, and in 1970 won the GB national championship in the
400 metres hurdles.

Leaving the Royal Marines in the late-1960s, Bob went to Loughborough University. He then
moved into sports marketing with Umbro Adidas Division, playing a key role in building the
Adidas brand into a major presence in the UK market between 1972-78. He subsequently
performed a similar role with the international French sportswear brand Le Coq Sportif from
1978-85, achieving “phenomenal success.” In 1986, he switched to the Danish sportswear
company Hummel and, as MD, ran its UK subsidiary until 1996.

After that, he branched out on his own, first as co-owner of Roberts Marketing and from 2002
as the owner of Impact Connections Executive Search, based in London and focusing on
recruitment for the footwear and clothing industries. In July 2017, by then in his early 70s
and adamant that he would not retire, he announced on LinkedIn that he had embarked on a
third new venture as Franchisee Owner of the award-winning franchise ‘Not Just Travel.’