Lieutenant George Arthur Boyd Rochfort

Regiment: Scots Guards
Date published: 24/09/1915
Killed in action: No
Information: Lieutenant George Arthur Boyd Rochfort, Scots Guards, has just returned to the front from a well-earned rest spent at his family seat, Middleton Park, Westmeath. Lieutenant Rochfort won his Victoria Cross by a brilliant exploit. He was in a trench with about forty of his men when a mortar bomb from the German lines hurtled over the parapet. He at once realised the danger and springing forward caught the bomb just before it reached the ground and flung it back over the parapet, where it exploded with a terrific report, burying Lieut. Rochfort and his comrades under the falling earth, but fortunately without inflicting any injuries. Lieutenant Rochfort's father, Major R. H. Boyd Rochfort, 15th Hussars, was formerly High Sheriff for the County Westmeath, and a member of the old Grand Jury. Lieut. Rochfort is well known not alone in Westmeath but throughout Ireland as an expert polo player and has frequently played in inter-county matches and on All-Ireland teams, and is also a well known follower of the Westmeath hounds. He is the second Westmeath soldier to receive the Victoria Cross.