Painter, draughtsman and teacher, noted for exotic wildlife and sporting subjects subjects, born in Cork, Ireland. When he was 10 he developed tuberculosis and his father, an Army musician, took him to Hastings, Sussex, to benefit from the sea air; he eventually settled nearby at Fairlight. Spencer Roberts recovered sufficiently to become an outstanding swimmer, training with the Olympic team. After Hastings Grammar School he studied at the local Art School, but in 1939, when he was serving in the Territorial Army, he was called up, preventing his taking up a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. Transferred to the Royal Air Force, Spencer Roberts qualified as a navigator and taught at flying schools in North America, but after a flying accident returned to the Army.