Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/222

 himself in the affairs of the principality. In the new Welsh University he served as junior deputy chancellor (1903-5) and as chairman (1910-11) of the executive committee of the court, on which he sat as one of the representatives of the college of his native town. He was J.P. for Cardiganshire, and high sheriff of that county (1902-3). To qualify himself for such public work he had become a student of the Middle Temple, and, though he was not called to the bar, he made a considerable study of law.

Long a lecturer for the Gilchrist Educational Trust, he acted as its secretary from 1899 till his death, bringing the organisation to a high state of efficiency and inaugurating valuable developments.

Roberts, who held many minor educational offices, showed exceptional skill and tact as an organiser, inspired others with his own enthusiasm, perseverance, and breadth of outlook, and devoted himself unsparingly to the improvement of the educational opportunities of all classes. While he was a fervent liberal in general politics, his wide sympathy made him equally at home among the Northumbrian miners and in Cambridge common-rooms.

In 1911 he was appointed secretary of the Congress of the Universities of the Empire which the University of London, with the co-operation of the other British universities, organised for the summer of 1912. In June 1911 he attended a preliminary conference of Canadian universities at Montreal, and was making active preparation at home when he suddenly died of calcification of the coronary arteries at his house at Kensington on 14 Nov. 1911. His body was cremated at Golder's Green, and was subsequently buried with public honours at Aberystwyth. In his memory two scholarships for the encouragement of university extension work were founded by public subscription, the administration of the fund being undertaken by the Gilchrist trustees.

Roberts married in 1888 Mary, eldest daughter of Philip S. King of Brighton. He left no children, and by his will he bequeathed the intimate residue of his estate to Aberystwyth College to form the nucleus of a fund which should provide for its professors periodic terms of release from their duties.

 ROBERTS-AUSTEN, WILLIAM CHANDLER (1843–1902), metallurgist, born at Kennington, Surrey, on 3 March 1843, was eldest son of George Roberts, of Welsh descent, who was in' the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, by his wife Maria Louisa, daughter of William Chandler, M.D., of Canterbury, of an old Kentish family which had intermarried with the Hulses and Austens. In 1885 he assumed, by royal licence, at the request of his uncle. Major Nathaniel Lawrence Austen of Haffenden and Camborne, in Kent, the name of Austen. After education at private schools, where he early showed a taste for science, he entered the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, at eighteen, with the view of qualifying as a mining engineer, and obtained the associateship there in 1865. The same year he joined Thomas Graham [q. v.], master of the mint, as private assistant. In 1870 (shortly after Graham's death) he was appointed to the new post of 'chemist of the mint,' and from 1882 to his death was 'chemist and assayer.' He filled temporarily the office of deputy master between the death of Sir Horace Seymour in June 1902 and the appointment of Mr. William Grey Ellison-Macartney next year. While assayer he was responsible for the standard fineness of about 150,000,000l. of gold coin, over 30,000,000l. of imperial silver coin, and about 10,000,000l. of bronze and colonial silver coin (T. K. Rose). On all scientific and technical operations of coinage he became the leading authority in all parts of the world. From 1880 to 1902 Roberts-Austen was also professor of metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines, having succeeded Dr. John Percy [q. v.]. He proved an illuminating teacher.

Roberts-Austen freely placed his special knowledge at the public disposal, taking part in numerous official scientific inquiries. In 1897 he served on the treasury committee (of which Lord Rayleigh was chairman) to consider the desirability of establishing a national physical laboratory, and was in 1899 an original member of the war office explosives committee.

Roberts-Austen's researches largely dealt with alloys. He delivered five series of Cantor lectures at the Society of Arts (1884-90) on investigations in alloys, which are printed in the society's 'Journal.' In 1891 he exhibited at the Royal Society's soirée a new alloy of gold and aluminium which he discovered; it contained 78.4 per cent, of gold and 21.6 of aluminium, and was remarkable for its intense purple 