A wife has paid tribute to her husband, a man who spent 24 years in the navy before making his home in Felixstowe, co-ordinating marine safety and teaching local people how to be safe on the waves.
Like his father before him, the sea was everything to Christopher Roche – or John, for he was always known by his middle name, and never Christopher.
John arrived in the world on September 28, 1929, at the Royal Navy and Marine Maternity Home in Gillingham, Kent.
His father, Peter, was a naval man, and John would one day follow in his father’s footsteps.
Tragically, Peter was killed in 1943, when the ship on which he was serving was torpedoed off the coast of Lowestoft.
John’s mother, Violet Elizabeth, was left a widow, raising John and his three sisters, Anne, Diana and Josephine, alone.
Violet later remarried and had a fourth daughter, Adrianne, and adopted a second son, Peter.
Upon leaving school, John spent two years at HMS Ganges at Shotley Gate, where he completed the training he needed for the navy.
He spent the next few years seeing the world while stationed on various vessels, including the HMS Tiger, Alert and Whirlwind.
However, fate brough him back to Suffolk as an instructor at HMS Ganges in 1957, which is how he came to be set up on a blind date with the woman who was to become his wife of 66 years.
Jennie, a nurse, had told a friend that she couldn’t attend the Easter dance held at HMS Ganges because she had no partner.
As they waited for a bus at the end of the Butter Market in Ipswich, who should drive past but John?
The friend persuaded Jennie to attend the dance with John, and the rest is history.
The couple married on April 20, 1958.
In 1960, John was called to serve on the HMS Tiger. By this time, he and Jennie had welcomed two boys, Crispin and Glynn.
While Jennie and the children were at home in Ipswich, enduring the bitterly cold weather of 1962 and 1963 the ‘Big Freeze’, John wrote to them daily from sunny Australia, sharing news of his travels.
In 1966, John was sent to Cape Town, with Jennie and their sons accompanying him. Their time in South Africa was eye-opening, remembered Jennie, particularly as the country was still strictly segregated under Apartheid.
In 1967, the family moved to Scotland where John was placed in charge of security at the nuclear submarine base, HMNB Clyde.
Two years later, John found himself ready to leave the navy after 24 years’ service.
Following the navy, John entered the Coastguard. He was stationed at various towns around the UK, before finally settling in Felixstowe in 1977. The town remained John and Jennie’s home for the next 40 years.
John worked as a sector officer, and soon became highly respected in Felixstowe, and beyond.
Windsurfing was becoming increasingly popular in the 1970s, and John spent much of his time teaching eager surfers how to enjoy their sport safely.
He was also called to teach the American soldiers stationed at RAF Bentwaters; having trained in the warmer climate of the USA, the servicemen greatly benefitted from John’s expertise on how to survive in the bitter North Sea.
It was for this service that John was awarded a British Empire Medal in 1982, travelling up to London with Jennie for the ceremony.
The honour praised the fact that John had earned not only the respect of the local community, but of all the emergency services in the area.
John left the coastguard in 1992, but even at 63, he was not yet ready to retire completely. He spent the next few years with the East Anglian Sea school, where he taught sailing, marine radio and small boat safety.
“We were very happy together,” said Jennie. “He was generous and caring. Both our boys went to university, which made us very proud.”
Christopher ‘John’ Roche BEM died on October 3, aged 95.
To read more tributes to those we have loved and lost in Suffolk, visit our obituaries page
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