Transportation - Home Base to Hong Kong

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Battle Information

We do not have specific battle information for this soldier in our online database. For a detailed description of the battle from a Canadian perspective, visit Canadian Participation in the Defense of Hong Kong (published by the Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters).

Wounded Information

No wounds recorded.

Hospital Information

No record of hospital visits found.

POW Camps

Transport to Japan

Transportation SE Asia to Home

No other or additional related information found. Please submit documents to us using the contact link at the top of this page.

Post-war Photo

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Other Military or Public Service

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Death and Cemetery Information

Gravestone Image

Obituary / Life Story

Officers Plan Death Probe, Body of Vanderbilt Secretary Found

Melvin C. Roberts, 27, former personal secretary to Winston Churchill and currently employed in the same capacity by Cornelius Vanderbilt, was found dead Sunday morning at a Carson Highway guest ranch.

The body was found in a trailer, and death is believed to have occurred from an overdose of sleeping tablets, officials said. A note constituting a holographic will and indicating suicide was found near the body, they added. Pending funeral arrangements, the body was taken to the Toss-Burke mortuary. An inquest is scheduled before Coroner Harry Dunseath this afternoon. Judge Dunseath said the circumstances surrounding the death made a “very thorough investigation of the situation advisable,” and an autopsy was ordered.

Mr. Roberts came here about a week ago with Mr. Vanderbilt, and has been living in an auto trailer at the guest ranch. Before entering Mr. Vanderbilt’s employ, Mr. Roberts served as personal secretary to former British prime minister Churchill during Mr. Churchill’s visit to Canada in 1946.

A native of Canada, Mr. Roberts was captured by Japanese forces in Hong Kong, China in December of 1941 and spend nearly four years in a Jap prison camp.

Nevada State Journal August 12, 1947, page 14

An overdose of sleeping tablets apparently caused the death of Melvin C. Roberts, 27, secretary to Cornelius Vanderbilt and former secretary to Winston Churchill, it has been announced from Reno, Nev. Roberts was found dead in his room at a Dude ranch. A Vanderbilt family spokesman said he was extremely nervous since his release after two years in a Japanese concentration camp.

Winnipeg Free Press August 12, 1947, page 2

Death of Secretary Called Postwar Tragedy; Victim was Member of Suicide Battalion

Death of Melvin C. Roberts, 27-year-old personal secretary to Cornelius Vanderbilt, was described as a postwar tragedy yesterday during the inquest held before Coroner Harry Dunseath.

While the coroner’s jury held that death was actually caused by “an excessive dose of barbiturates" and technically “must be called self destruction both because of the wording of the holographic will and the obvious overdose of narcotics,” they added that other circumstances must be considered. “Actually this death should be considered as an honorable war casualty,” the verdict continued. “The deceased was brought to his existing mental condition as a result of the effects of his harrowing experience in a Japanese internment camp.”

Suicide Pact

During the hearing, Maj. Vanderbilt testified that Mr. Roberts was one of eight soldiers who survived the horrors of prison camp and who had evidently agreed to take their own lives if those lives were not happy. Five of these men have taken their own lives recently, Maj. Vanderbilt added, and two of the suicides occurred during the last eight months. “I think they were a sort of suicide battalion,” Maj. Vanderbilt testified.

Significance of the date of Mr. Roberts’ death – August 9 – was also mentioned by Maj. Vanderbilt. It was August 9, 1945, that the group was liberated from prison camp; it was August 9, 1946, that one of the eight took his own life. Maj. Vanderbilt added that Mr. Roberts dwelt frequently on his long imprisonment, which extended from Dec. 8 1941, when he was captured at Hong Kong while serving with the Canadian army. During his imprisonment, Mr. Roberts had been “used as a guinea pig” by the Japanese medical experimenters, Maj. Vanderbilt continued.

The internment experiences which resulted in “extermination” of 75 per cent of Mr. Roberts’ regiment, frequently caused Mr. Roberts to have “horrible dreams,” to alleviate which he took sleeping tablets, Maj. Vanderbilt said. The night of Gen. Mark Clark’s speech in Reno, Mr. Roberts became “very much upset” at the general’s words, Maj. Vanderbilt added, and three dozen Nembutal capsules were purchased here then. Only two of those tablets were known to have been used until the morning Mr. Robert’s death was discovered, August 10. The bottle contained the 34 remaining capsules was found empty in the trailer were Mr. Roberts died.

Served with Churchill

Maj. Vanderbilt said that Mr. Roberts at one time served as personal aide to Winston Churchill during Mr. Churchill’s visit here a year or so ago. At that time, Mr. Churchill referred to Mr. Roberts as “an outstanding example of a young Canadian who had done his duty,” and wanted to take Mr. Roberts to England with him, the Major added.

Mr. Roberts had been in Maj. Vanderbilt’s employ the last eight months, during which time the two travelled around the country in a large double trailer. Maj. Vanderbilt described returning to the trailer early the morning of August 10, pulling closed the partition which separated the two men’s sleeping quarters and going to bed with no idea that there was anything wrong with Mr. Roberts. About 8:30 a.m. he attempted to awaken Mr. Roberts, and on finding him “cold” summoned aid from the guest ranch nearby.

Sheriff’s Deputy Rudy Hoganson testified that he found Mr. Roberts in bed in the trailer as Maj. Vanderbilt had described him, and Erb Austin, mortician, testified that the holographic will was found clutched in Mr. Roberts’ right hand. The will, which Maj. Vanderbilt identified as being written in Mr. Roberts’ own hand, was held confidential by Coroner Dunseath but members of the coroner’s jury were allowed to read it to aid in their returning a verdict.

Reports of the autopsy surgeon and pathologist who conducted post-mortem investigation of Mr. Roberts’ body were submitted, and indicated that barbiturates “in excessive content” were found. Members of the coroner’s jury yesterday were Mrs. Lillie Clinedinst, Dryden Kuser and Alvin Grodrian.

Nevada State Journal August 13, 1947, page 16

Melvin C. Roberts Funeral Planned

Funeral services for Melvin C. Roberts secretary to Cornelius Vanderbilt who was found dead in his trailer home Sunday at Franktown will be held today. Rites are at 2 o’clock at the Ross Burke Company chapel, Rev. F. C. Murgotten officiating. Interment will be in Mountain View cemetery. He was a veteran of World War II.

Nevada State Journal August 13, 1947, page 2

Inquest is Held in Roberts Death

Melvin C. Roberts, 27-year-old native of Canada, died as a result of an “excessive dose of barbiturates” a coroner’s jury here declared Tuesday following an inquest into the death. The verdict stated the drugs were self-administered. Mr. Roberts, who had been employed as the personal secretary to Cornelius Vanderbilt and was termed a one-time secretary to Winston Churchill, former British prime minster, was found dead last Saturday morning in a trailer he occupied with Mr. Vanderbilt near Franktown. Members of the jury at the inquest conducted by Coroner Harry Dunseath were Mrs. Lillie Clindinst, Dryden Kuser and Alvin Grodrian.

Reno Evening Gazette August 15 1947, Page 12

War Prisoner Doubts Suicide Pact Prompted Vanderbilt’s Secretary To Take His Own Life in Reno

QUEBEC, Que., Aug. 19. (U.P)— A fellow war prisoner and intimate friend of Melvin C. Roberts said today he was positive Roberts did not make a "happiness or death" suicide pact with seven other Canadian prisoners during their three and one-half years in Japanese camps.

Roberts died on Aug. 9, and a Reno, Nev., coroner’s jury last Thursday decided the death was “suicide as a result of a harrowing experience.” Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., millionaire sportsman for whom Roberts worked as a private secretary, told the jury Roberts had told him five of the formers POW’s already had killed themselves, carrying out an agreement to end their lives if they were not happy in the postwar world. Roberts was reported to have take an overdose of sleeping tablets becoming the sixth member of the group to die.

“I am positive Roberts did not make a suicide pack with seven other men,” J. B. Thomson, former warrant officer with the Royal Rifles regiment, said in a letter addressed to the Reno district attorney. Thomson wrote from Jeffrey Hal hospital, where he is a patient. “Any deaths that have occurred of ex-members of our regiment since returning to Canada have all been accounted for, with one exception – a traffic accident,” Thomson wrote. “They all died from T.B., heart disease, or other diseases contracted while in prison camps. There is absolutely no truth in the statement that Roberts was the sixth man to take his life.”

Thomson said Roberts was not liberated on Aug. 9, 1945 and that therefore the Aug. 9 date of his death had no significance. “Roberts was not the type who would feel that his suicide could in any way assist the troubles of his postwar world.” Thomson wrote, adding that Roberts was “extremely level-headed, of moderate habits and not an alcoholic.” He said Roberts to his knowledge never had taken sleeping pills “but if he had recently found this necessary, I am sure that he did not deliberately take an overdose, the more so in view of the obvious fallacy of the suicide pact theory on which the jury apparently based its verdict and the further fact that he was entirely happy and contented in every respect.” Thomson suggested that an autopsy should be performed or a further investigation made. It was stated at the inquest that Roberts bought the sleeping pills after hearing the Reno speech by Gen. Mark Clark on American-Russian relations. Thomson said any statement Clark could have made “would not have had sufficient effect on Roberts to influence him to commit suicide, or to unduly depress him.”

District Attorney Harold Taber said yesterday he planned no further investigation of the death of Melvin C. Roberts, 27, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s secretary, whose death here August 9 a corner’s jury ruled was “an honorable war casualty” following a “happiness or suicide” pact with other Japanese prisoners of war.

Taber’s statement followed a comment in Quebec, Canada by a fellow war prisoner and intimate friend of Roberts, that he was positive Roberts did not make a suicide pact with other Canadian prisoners during their three and half years in Japanese camps. Vanderbilt yesterday insisted his story of a vow taken among the fellow prisoners to commit suicide should the post-war world prove unhappy “was exactly what he (Roberts) told me.”

Nevada State Journal August 20, 1947, page 2

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General Comments

Melvin Charles Roberts born in Cap aux Os, Gaspe, Quebec and died in Franktown, Washoe, Nevada, USA.
Facebook January 2018 from Frank Normand: "If I am not mistaking he had a brother named Arthur, both were in Hong Kong.... my dad knew them as they were all from Cap-aux-Os down by Gaspé."

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’C’ Force Family Connections:

• Brother of E30685 Arthur Roberts

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End of Report.

Report generated: 27 Apr 2025.