He conducted anthropological data collection of the Africans he encountered on mission.
Roscoe's career heavily echoed the Victorian notion of improving natives under British rule.
He studied civil engineering before joining the Anglican Church Missionary Society.
In 1884, on mission, he travelled to what became the Uganda Protectorate, and lived there among several African tribes until 1909.
Though Roscoe’s attitude toward Africa’s salvation was more pragmatic and less fervent than that of Livingstone, reflective of his later imperial era in which the British had already established their presence in Africa, he recognized Livingstone’s contributions to British endeavours on the continent.