CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Evan Roberts (rugby union)

Welsh rugby union player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 7, 2025
Entity authorityQ5415528 ↗
Source-derived summary

Evan Roberts (19 September 1861 – 16 October 1927) was a Welsh international rugby union player who played club rugby for Llanelli and international rugby for Wales.

Rugby career

Roberts was selected to play for Wales in two international rugby union matches, both while playing club rugby for Llanelli. His first cap was in a match against England as part of the 1886 Home Nations Championship; Roberts came into the pack with three other new caps, and at fullback, Llanelli team-mate Harry Bowen. Wales lost the match by a narrow margin, and when the Welsh team experimented with the four three-quarters in the next match, against Scotland, Roberts was one of the forward players dropped from the pack. Roberts played one more match for Wales, the final game of the 1887 Home Nations Championship, against Ireland. Wales had dropped the four three-quarter system for the 1887 Championship, and Roberts was brought in to replace Bob Gould. Although Ireland scored three tries to Wales one, a Welsh dropped goal gave them the victory. Despite the win, Roberts was not chosen to represent his country again.

International matches played

Wales (rugby union)

England 1886

Ireland 1887

Bibliography

Godwin, Terry (1984). The International Rugby Championship 1883-1983.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Evan Roberts (rugby union)” as welsh rugby union player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Evan, Roberts and rugby.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1861, 1927, 1886, 1887—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Evan, Roberts and rugby providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Evan Roberts (rugby union)”, the useful work is to connect “welsh rugby union player” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5415528. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1927, 1886 and 1887.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Evan Roberts (rugby union)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Evan Roberts (rugby union) primary sources, Evan Roberts (rugby union) archive and Evan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Evan Roberts (rugby union)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Evan Roberts (rugby union)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.