Colonel John Philip Roche
(1806-1884)
30 October 1860

Volume 2, page 65, sitting number 1559.

Born in Dublin between 1806 and 1810, John Philip Roche was the only son of Philip Roche of County Kildare, Ireland. His sisters were Anna Maria, wife of Thomas Oliver Plunkett, 12th Lord Louth; and Margaret Randalina, wife of Thomas Nicholas Barnewall, 16th Baron Trimleston. He obtained the rank of Colonel in the service of the 2nd Life Guards.

He visited Silvy’s studio on 30 October 1860 with his sister, Lady Louth, and her daughter, the Honourable Augusta Plunkett.

On 3 April 1869, at St James's Piccadilly, he married Agnes Jane Mugford, daughter of James Antony Mugford. Born in 1846 at Devonport in Devon, she was some 30 years his junior. According to the 1851 census, her father was a 'Commercial Agent (Grocery).'

The couple appear on both the 1871 and 1881 censuses living at 17 Stafford Terrace in Kensington.

Colonel Roche died, apparently aged 78 though that doesn't quite tally with the age he gave on the censuses, on 16 December 1884 at his London residence, 17 Stafford Terrace, Kensington. In July he had fractured his thigh in a fall on the steps of the United Service Club in Pall Mall. The attending surgeon had no doubt that this had hastened his death (West London Observer, 20 December 1884).

The following year his widow married Richard Henry Woodroofe of Ballysaggartmore, Lismore, County Waterford, and 41A Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London. She died at Ballysaggartmore on 4 August 1895, leaving effects valued at £19,784.