Col. Alan Clive ROBERTS OBE TD DL

The shield of Col. Roberts is divided into red and blue for the colours of Royal Artillery of which he is a Colonel Commandant. The grenades are also symbols of the Regiment. The three mullets represent spurs and the stars on the arms of the University of Leeds of which Col. Roberts was Pro-Chancellor for many years. The stars are also winged as in the emblem of the 24th Air Mobile Brigade in which the Colonel served. The crest emerges from an ancient crown which symbolises that Col. Roberts is a deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and also serves as a reminder that he was an ADC to HM The Queen. The turret of a castle signifies that the Colonel’s father was one-time Commandant of Bamborough Castle. The lion has long been symbol of the British Sovereign and here wears a collar of oak leaves for Col. Roberts is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. The lion carries a ramrod, part of the badge of the Royal Artillery, around which is entwined the snake from the rod of Aesclepius, the sign of the medieval profession. Col. Roberts is a Professor of Bio-materials in Surgery at the University of Hull and Vice President of the Royal Society of Medicine. Serpents were sacred to Aesclepius, the god of the medical art, for they were symbols of renovation. The lion’s two tails also stand for the Colonel’s twin professions, the Army and medical science.