Notes
Michael Patrick Lyttleton Roche was born in Surry on 16 September 1920, the only child of Alice (née Stanier) and Captain Alfred Lyttleton Roche MBE of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was educated at Eastbourne College from 1934 to 1939, where he was captain of the Tennis VI. He entered Worcester College, Oxford, on 13 October 1939, but left in 1940 to join the army.
Michael Roche attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment on 15 March 1941. By November 1942 the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment were in Tunisia where they relieved the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment at Teboura on 30 November. They were attacked by the Germans on 2 December and suffered heavy casualties, they were subsequently ordered to withdraw overnight. On 3 December 1942 the Hampshires came under further sustained attack from the German army while continuing to retreat. Lieutenant Michael Roche was drowned aged 22, while trying to save one of his men who had fallen into the River Medjerda during the retreat. He was mentioned in dispatches.
Michael Roche is buried in Beja War Cemetery in Tunisia and is commemorated on the war memorials at Eastbourne College and Worcester College, Oxford.