Arthur Roberts
Arthur Meredyth Roberts (born October 17, 1889 in Charleston, South Carolina; died October 18, 1918 in Issoudun, France) was an aviator with the U.S. Army's 3rd Aviation Instruction Center serving with the American Expeditionary Force in World War I.
Roberts was the son of Welsh engineer David Roberts and South Carolina native Belle Sumter Yates. The family moved to Birmingham after Roberts became an officer of the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company. Arthur left the city to earn his diploma at the Sibley College of Engineering at Cornell University in New York, graduating in 1911. He returned to Birmingham afterward and volunteered on August 22, 1917 for service in World War I.
Roberts was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and was serving as an aviator in France when his plane was shot down over Issoudun and he was killed, one day after his 29th birthday. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A plaque in his memory was also placed at his family's plot at Elmwood Cemetery. Birmingham's Roberts Field, which housed the Alabama National Guard's 135th Observation Squadron, was named in his honor.
References
- Armes, Ethel (1910) The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. Birmingham: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
External links
- Arthur Roberts (Elmwood) at Findagrave.com
- Arthur Roberts (Arlington) at Findagrave.com