Lewis Edgar Roberts (2 April 1918 – 3 March 2001) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er, railwayman and businessman, best known as a prominent player for the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

(SANFL).

Early life

Roberts was born in

Evandale, South Australia Evandale is a small suburb of Adelaide in the City of Norwood Payneham St Peters. It is bounded on the northwest by Payneham Road and on the east by Portrush Road Portrush Road is a major arterial route through the eastern suburbs of Adelaide ...

, into a family that lived in

Dublin, South Australia Dublin is a small town on the Adelaide Plains in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Situated on Highway 1, the town is surrounded by farmland and rural industry. Along with nearby Windsor the area is home to a growing commu ...

. He attended Adelaide High School.

Football career

Roberts began his football career with Port Adelaide in 1937. He captained the club during the SANFL's war time competition from 1942–1944. After the war, he won the club's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award in 1946. In 1948, Roberts again took the captaincy of the club along with coaching responsibilities in what was his last year playing for the club. Roberts' ability to kick the ball accurately to advantageous positions for his team mates was a notable part of his game.

Railway and business career

After beginning his working life as a junior porter in the carriage shed of the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

, Roberts rose to be a train controller for the Railways. Then, at the beginning of 1953, he took office as General Manager of the Silverton Tramway Company, a position he held until the end of 1971. In that capacity, he oversaw the restructure and dieselisation of the tramway operated by the company between

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, New South Wales, and

Cockburn, South Australia Cockburn ( ) is a town and locality in the east of the Australian state of South Australia immediately adjacent to the border with New South Wales near Broken Hill. It was established because the New South Wales government refused to allow loco ...

, and in the 1960s the creation of four subsidiaries. In 1972, in the wake of the closure of the tramway and its replacement by a government-operated

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

line two years earlier, Roberts became Corporate Managing Director of the renamed Silverton Limited and subsidiaries. Under his leadership, the company, relocated to Melbourne, continued mine shunting in Broken Hill, and began working on property development and rail construction projects around Australia.

Personal life

Following Roberts' move to Broken Hill to further his career as a railwayman, he continued his sporting interests as Chairman of the Broken Hill Football League. He also became Chairman of the Barrier District Cricket League, and Vice President of the Broken Hill Golf Club.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Lew Australian rules footballers from South Australia Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) coaches 1918 births 2001 deaths People educated at Adelaide High School