For students, it’s a scholarship. For Edward Roberts, it’s an ode to Newfoundland

Oct 7, 2022

Edward Roberts sits on a bench, holding a small fluffy dog. Text on bench reads: Taffy's Bench. — *Ed Roberts loved dogs and installed this bench on a popular dog-walking trail in memory of one beloved rescue, Taffy. Photo courtesy of the Roberts family*

When Edward Roberts wrote his will, he included gifts for both his undergrad and graduate alma maters—the University of Toronto’s Victoria College and Faculty of Law. “He really believed that he’d received a very good education. And so, he wanted to give back,” says Catherine Roberts, his daughter. But giving back wasn’t a final act for Roberts. It was a theme that threaded through his life, just like his love for his home province, Newfoundland.

Born in 1940 when Newfoundland and Labrador was independent (it didn’t become Canada’s 10th province until 1949), Edward M. Roberts (BA 1960 VIC, LLB 1964) “loved Newfoundland above all,” says Catherine. You couldn’t miss it. When he joined the staff of The Varsity in 1958, the team welcomed him as “a new-found treasure.”

Within weeks, Roberts was writing about a second passion: politics. He joined the student Liberals and the model parliament. He also rose to editor of the paper and volunteered to organize everything from the student-alumni hockey game to a pie-eating contest.

After he graduated law school, Roberts took a post as executive assistant to Joey Smallwood, Newfoundland’s first premier. “It was never entirely clear whether he’d been offered the job, or he just arrived,” says Catherine. “He just showed up and started working.”

Roberts was elected to the provincial legislature in 1966 and eventually become leader of the Liberal party, and leader of the opposition. He served in politics until 1996, then as Newfoundland’s lieutenant governor from 2002 until 2008.

He was the most self-effacing person. He mentored lots of people, but he didn’t talk about it, he just quietly did it. And he was a tireless volunteer.

Behind the scenes, he never stopped helping people.

“He was the most self-effacing person,” says his daughter. “He mentored lots of people, but he didn’t talk about it, he just quietly did it. And he was a tireless volunteer.”

He was the most self-effacing person. He mentored lots of people, but he didn’t talk about it, he just quietly did it. And he was a tireless volunteer.

Standing up for Newfoundlanders

She’s most proud of an incident that took place in 2006, when the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and Roberts as its honorary colonel, travelled to France for the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel. This First World War engagement, on the first day of the Somme offensive, reverberates in the province to this day. Eight hundred Newfoundlanders went over the top and the next morning, only 68 answered the roll call. Everyone on the tight-knit island was touched by the staggering loss.

As Lieutenant Governor and Honorary Colonel of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, Roberts helped organize a pilgrimage to the battle site of both battalions of the Regiment and dozens of Newfoundlanders who were “Friends of the Regiment.” Upon arrival in France, a politician from Ottawa decreed that the Regimental band must replace Newfoundland’s own anthem in their program with O Canada. The Newfoundlanders were shocked.

The Newfoundland memorial at Beaumont Hamel: a green hill, hundreds of names engraved in metal, and a statue of a caribou.

I have never been prouder of him than I was on that day.

“Dad took the podium,” says Catherine, “before the members of the Regiment, the audience of several hundred people, and the news media, and gave a stirring speech explaining that in 1916, Newfoundland was a separate Dominion, that the Ode to Newfoundland was our anthem, and that the Royal Newfoundland Regiment band most assuredly would play the Ode, despite what the minister had said. And then, the band played it. I have never been prouder of him than I was on that day.”

But the story has a coda that she didn’t learn until years later.

I have never been prouder of him than I was on that day.

“My dad understood that it’s very difficult for most Newfoundlanders to have the means or the resources to be able to visit Beaumont-Hamel,” says Catherine. So, when the centenary came in 2016, “he spearheaded a project to erect a replica of the bronze plaques that are at Beaumont-Hamel, with all the names of the fallen members of the Regiment, right in Bowring Park in St. John’s.”

“Last year, I made a point of bringing my kids to the monument, and explaining to them how important it was, without realizing Dad’s involvement. When we later told him of our visit, he was pleased but said nothing of his role in its creation.” It wasn’t until after he died that she learned he had initiated the project.

A great believer in education

The scholarships that Roberts created in his will with his gift to the Faculty of Law comes from the same desire to remove barriers, and create opportunity, for others. The Edward Roberts Bursary will support students from Newfoundland and Labrador who are in financial need, and who are studying law at U of T.

“He was a great believer in the importance of postsecondary education,” says Catherine. “He actually did a master’s degree in history in his sixties. He was a walking encyclopedia, the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever known.” His legacy now offers a transformative education to his fellow Newfoundlanders. “He spent his whole life in service to Newfoundland in one way or another.”

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