David St Clair Roberts was a consultant ophthalmologist at Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton. He was born on 28 February 1922 in Worcester, the only child of Bernard Hamilton St Clair Roberts, an ophthalmic surgeon, and Jane Elizabeth Roberts née Williams. He was educated at Marlborough College and then went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, qualifying in 1945. Prior to his consultant appointment he was a house physician at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and then a clinical tutor in ophthalmology in Oxford and first assistant at Oxford Eye Hospital. During his training, he was influenced by the physician Alec Cooke at the Radcliffe Infirmary and by his father. He also served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1949, he married Elizabeth ('Betsy') Radovitch, the daughter of the Yugoslav military attaché in London. They had a daughter (Jane), a son (John) and five grandchildren (Georgina, Ian, Alasdair, Rosanna and Amelia). Predeceased by his wife and daughter, Roberts died on 11 March 2015, aged 93.