There, he studied at the Low Valley Wesleyan Day School until he was twelve, when he left to work at Mitchell's Main Colliery.
After filling a variety of roles, he moved to Darfield Main Colliery, becoming a hewer at the age of twenty.
He was also active in the Yorkshire Miners' Association (YMA), elected as the Darfield Main delegate at the age of nineteen, then branch secretary in 1902.
[1] Roebuck also represented the YMA on the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and unsuccessfully stood to become its general secretary in 1919.
He was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Doncaster at the general election expected in 1914, but after the outbreak of World War I caused it to be postponed, he stood down.