Walter Edmund Roth (1861-1933), physician, anthropologist and protector of Aborigines, was born on 2 April 1861 in London. He was educated initially in France and Germany and at University College School, London. He studied biology at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of (Sir) Baldwin Spencer, and undertook medical training at St Thomas's Hospital, London.

His interest in Aboriginal anthropology was firmly established by 1894. In 1902 Roth was president of the anthropology section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1898 Roth was appointed as the first northern protector of Aboriginals in Queensland. based at Cooktown. His main brief was to prevent the exploitation of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, including in the bêche-de-mer industry.

Roth was effective as a protector but his initiatives brought him into conflict with politicians, settlers and the press in North Queensland. From 1904-06 he was chief protector (from Brisbane). In 1904 he also headed the Western Australian royal commission into the conditions of the Aborigines in the North-West. He resigned in 1906 and left Australia. In 1907 he went to British Guyana where held various posts and died there in 1933.

Roth published eighteen ethnographic bulletins, based on his official reports, on various aspects of Aboriginal culture.