Irish privates to the Irish
regimental officers who have won the V.C., we find the same pluck,
endurance, and devotion to duty displayed. Second Lieutenant George
Arthur Boyd-Rochfort, of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, is a type of
the Irish gentry who have contributed to the British Army so
remarkably large a number of gallant regimental officers and
distinguished commanders, from the Duke of Wellington to Viscount
French of Ypres. He had done no soldiering before the present war. The
eldest son of the late Major R.H. Boyd-Rochfort, of the 15th Hussars,
he succeeded to the family property at Middleton Park, Westmeath. Aged
thirty-five, and the head of his family, all his interests centred in
the work of the estate. Yet when the war broke out Mr. Boyd-Rochfort
felt it his duty to join the Army, so that he might serve his country
along with his younger brothers--Captain H. Boyd-Rochfort, of the
21st Lancers (now Brigade-Major of the 21st Cavalry Brigade), and
Lieutenant Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, of the Scots Guards. To qualify
himself physically for a commission in the Scots Guards he had to
undergo two operations, which confined him to hospital for close on
five months. He got his commission in April, 1915, went to the Front
in June, and won the Victoria Cross on August 3rd, in the trenches
between Cambria and La Bassee.

Lieutenant Boyd-Rochfort was afterwards wounded in a single-handed
fight with two Germans--he knocked one down with the butt-end of his
empty revolver and the other with his fist--and was invalided home,
when the whole countryside turned out to do him honour. He gave the
following account of his exploit:--

"It was at break of day, just before we were ordered to 'stand
to,' we were working in the first line of trenches, and a trench
that was nothing more than a graveyard. The first German trench
was no more than fifty yards away, and their mortars and rifle
grenades were simply spilling into us. Our trench was getting
badly knocked about by the flying missiles. You must distinguish
between these mortars and shells, because the mortars have a
time fuse which explodes them without striking. I was just
raising my head over the front of the trench, and, hearing the
whiz, I said to my men, 'Look out.' Down they went. The bomb
landed, and started to roll down from the top of the trench. I
dashed forward and seized it, and threw it over the top of
trench. Sca