Born in Victoria, British Columbia, on August 4, 1912, Harold Rocke Robertson, known as H. Rocke Robertson or “Rocke”, received his primary school education at St. Michael’s School and his secondary school training, from 1926-1929, at Brentwood College in Victoria. From 1925-1926, accompanied by his sister, Marian, he studied near Geneva, Switzerland, where he acquired French. In 1929 he moved to Montreal where he attended McGill University, receiving a B.Sc. (1932) and an M.D.C.M. (1936). He also completed an internship at the Montreal General Hospital under Dr. Fraser B. Gurd and he studied pathology under Dr. Pop Rhea. Following this, Robertson earned a medical fellowship at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Scotland, where he studied from 1938 to 1939. In 1937 he married Beatrice Rosyln Arnold, known as “Rolly” at Arncliffe, her family home, in Senneville, Quebec, and had four children: Tam, Ian, Bea, and Stuart, known as “Tooie or Toopot”.

H. Rocke Robertson died on February 8, 1998, Ottawa, Ontario. His funeral was held at McGill University.

Robertson Masson & Co. was an import-export company that existed under several names between 1811 and roughly 1900. Initially owned by brothers William and Hugh Robertson, and based in Glasgow, Scotland, the business expanded to Canada. The business dealt in import of goods to Canada, especially textiles, and export of Canadian goods to Europe, especially wheat and potash. In 1915, Joseph Masson became a senior partner and the company operated on Montreal under the name Robertson, Masson & Co. In 1930, they established a branch in Quebec City under the name Robertson, Masson, Strang & Co., overseen by John Strang, who was later succeeded by Charles Langevin. After the deaths of Strang and Masson in 1841 and 1847, new partners were brought in and the Montreal and Quebec companies became Masson, Bruyère, Thomas & Co. and Langevin, Masson, Thibaudeau et Compagnie, respectively. By 1859, a number of the partners retired or left the business, leaving the enterprise to Thomas and Thibaudeau. The company eventual became Thibaudeau Brothers & Co in the 1870s, and it contiued to exist under that name until at least 1895.