Leonard Roberts was born in 1919 and attended Wolverhampton Grammar School before spending one year at St Peter's Hall, Oxford. He voluntarily enlisted in the Army in September 1939 and served until 1946 when demobilised with the rank of Major when Second-in-Command of the 7th Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry, stationed in Germany.

Roberts joined the Colonial Administrative Service and was posted to the Eastern Region of Nigeria and Southern Cameroons as an assistant district officer and from 1951 a district officer. From 1954 to 1955 he was Clerk of the Executive Council and House of Assembly, Southern Cameroons, and from 1955 to 1956 was Acting Deputy Secretary for the Council of Ministers in Lagos. He was Senior Assistant Secretary (Security), 1956-1958, and Deputy Secretary, Defence Branch, Lagos, 1958-1960, before completing his Colonial Service career as Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Lagos, 1960-1961.

On returning to the UK Roberts qualified as a solicitor and worked in Hyde, Cheshire, and then in London, moving to Creech Heathfield, Somerset, after retirement. He died in 2005.