Eirlys Roberts

{{Infobox person

| name = Eirlys Roberts

| image = Eirlys Roberts.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1911|01|03}}

| birth_place = Caerphilly, Wales

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2008|03|18|1911|01|03}}

| death_place = London

| nationality = Welsh

| citizenship = United Kingdom

| occupation = Consumer campaigner

| known_for = Which?

}}

Eirlys Rhiwen Cadwaladr Roberts {{post-nominals|country=GBR-cats|CBE}} (3 January 1911 – 18 March 2008) was a Welsh consumer advocate and campaigner, and a co-founder of the Consumers' Association. She edited Which? magazine from 1957 to 1973.

Early life

Roberts was born in Caerphilly, in 1911 to a Welsh father and Scottish mother. She attended school in Clapham, southwest London, and read classics at Girton College, Cambridge. Her first job was in Majorca as classics adviser to Robert Graves while he was writing I, Claudius. Following this she worked as a sub-editor for Amalgamated Press. During World War 2 she worked in military intelligence and in 1941 married John Cullen; the marriage did not last and they had no children. For two years after the war she worked for the United Nations in Albania. On returning home she joined the Civil Service at the Treasury, where she worked for 10 years.{{cite news|work=The Guardian|title=Obituary: Eirlys Roberts|date=22 March 2008|author=Maurice Healy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/mar/22/consumeraffairs.personalfinancenews1|accessdate=2 November 2017}}{{cite news|work=The Daily Telegraph|title=Obituary: Eirlys Roberts|date=21 March 2008|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1582337/Eirlys-Roberts.html|accessdate=2 November 2017}}{{cite news|work=The Scotsman|date=9 April 2008|title=Obituary: Eirlys Roberts|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/eirlys-roberts-1-1163142|accessdate=2 November 2017}}{{cite news|work=Independent|title=Obituary: Eirlys Roberts|author=Rosemary McRobert|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/eirlys-roberts-editor-of-which-magazine-who-became-one-of-the-most-influential-figures-in-the-806966.html|date=9 April 2008|accessdate=2 November 2017}} Princeton University Library, USA, holds a document collection of materials compiled by Roberts between 1935 and 1977, including unpublished fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, diaries and private letters.{{cite web|title=Princeton University Library: Eirlys Roberts Collection|url=https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/eirlys-roberts-collection|accessdate=2 November 2017}}

Consumer campaigner

Roberts was involved in the foundation of the Consumers' Association from its start and was for a time its head of research, and particularly editor of Which? magazine from 1957 to 1973.{{cite web|title=Which?: 60 years of questioning|url=http://explore.which.co.uk/timeline|accessdate=2 November 2017}} Maurice Healy succeeded her as editor.{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=Richard |title=Maurice Healy obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/26/maurice-healy-obituary |access-date=28 November 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=26 November 2020}}

She was active on consumer affairs in the EEC from 1973 and served on the Royal Commission of the Press from 1974 to 1977. She was a freelance writer for The Observer and in 1971 presented a paper entitled Is persuasion a science? to the symposium The Future of Man at the Royal Geographical Society in London.{{cite book|title=Royal Geographical Society Symposium: The Future of Man: Is persuasion a science?|year=1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEK0BQAAQBAJ&q=Eirlys+Roberts|page=155|isbn=9781483270388|accessdate=2 November 2017|last1=Ebling|first1=F. J.|last2=Heath|first2=G. W.|publisher=Academic Press }} Roberts was appointed director of the Bureau of European Consumer Organisations in 1972 and served until 1978.{{cite work|author=Matthew Hilton|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=301|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9mkDpzy0vUC&q=Eirlys+Roberts|title=Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain: The Search for a Historical Movement|isbn=9780521538534|accessdate=2 November 2017}} She was a member of the Economic and Social Committee of the EEC (1973–82) and was founder, chairman and chief executive of the European Research Institute for Consumer Affairs from 1978-1997, campaigning for clarity of language in publications.

Personal life

Eirlys Roberts lived for much of her life in Islington, using her married name in private life. Her Scottish mother gave her a pride in her Scottish ancestry, and she enjoyed mountain walking there. While there in 1982 she campaigned for Roy Jenkins in a Glasgow by-election. The previous year she had been one of the 100 signatories to a letter to The Guardian in support of the newly formed SDP.{{cite work|title=Roy Jenkins|publisher=Random House|author=John Campbell|year=2014|page=560|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WccBAgAAQBAJ&q=Eirlys+Roberts|isbn=9781448192441|accessdate=2 November 2017}}

Roberts moved to Forest Hill in the 1990s, where she died in 2008.

Selected works

Roberts, Eirlys. Consumers. 1966. C. A. Watts & Co. {{ISBN|978-0296347560}}
{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Eirlys|title=Which? 25 : Consumers' Association 1957–1982|date=1982|publisher=Consumers' Association|location=London|isbn=0852022417}}
Evans, Gareth (author) and Roberts, Eirlys (translator) Rol a Statws Merched yn yr Ugeinfed Ganrif (The role of women as consumers). 1966. {{ISBN|978-1856443692}}

Eirlys Roberts

Early life

Consumer campaigner

Personal life

Selected works

References

Further reading