| Bertram Rogers | |
| Fullname: | Bertram Mitford Heron Rogers |
| Birth Date: | 25 August 1860 |
| Birth Place: | Oxford |
| Death Place: | Oxford |
| Position: | Half-back |
| Years1: | 1880 |
| Clubs1: | North Oxford |
| Years2: | 1880–81 |
| Clubs2: | Oxford University |
Bertram Mitford Heron Rogers (25 August 1860 – 10 February 1953) was an English footballer who played in the 1880 FA Cup Final.
Rogers was the second son of Thorold Rogers and was born at 4 Wellington Place in Oxford. He attended the School of Art in Oxford and Magdalen College School in Oxford, before going up to Westminster School.[1] He represented Westminster at cricket,[2] averaging 10 with the bat over 15 innings in 1877.[3]
In 1876, Rogers discovered the body of his older brother, Henry, who had hanged himself, at the family home in Oxford, and gave extensive evidence at the inquest.[4]
Rogers went up to Exeter College, Oxford in January 1880, and took his Bachelor of Arts in 1883.[5]
His first known football match was for the North Oxford club against Newbury in February 1880, as a forward;[6] although Westminster was known as a footballing nursery, he never represented the school.
However Rogers was a late bloomer, as his appearance for North Oxford led to him being chosen the following month for the Oxford University side as a half-back in the 1879–80 FA Cup quarter-final tie with the Royal Engineers; by coincidence, the captain at the start of the season had been another Rogers (Percy John Mackarness), but he was no relation. Rogers' first three competitive matches came inside a week - the original tie with the Sappers, the replay after the original match was drawn, and, in between, the Varsity match against Cambridge. He played as half-back in all three matches, which were all played at the Kennington Oval. Oxford beat the Sappers in the replay,[7] but lost the Varsity.[8]
Rogers kept his place in the win over Nottingham Forest in the semi-final,[9] and, in the final against Clapham Rovers, "greatly distinguished" himself, but the Rovers clinched the game with a late goal.[10]
Rogers only appears in two more matches, a 4–0 win over Maidenhead in October 1880,[11] and again on the losing side in the Varsity in February 1881.[12]
Rogers became a doctor of medicine, living in Clifton, Bristol, and on 2 October 1891 married Agnes Fletcher at Carfax.[13] The couple had two daughters.
He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and a licenciate of the Royal College of Physicians, and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, being appointed Lieutenant in 1908.[14] By 1921 he was a lieutenant-colonel[15] and was made an Officer of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in October 1927.[16]
He was an author of a number of medical papers, and edited a handbook to Bristol for the British Association in 1898, contributing a chapter on meteorology.[17]
He returned to Oxford in retirement, where he died on 10 February 1953, with his daughters being granted probate; his estate was worth over £27,800.[18]