Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy (15 May 1885 – 8 July 1955) was a British Conservative Party politician, an Irish peer and the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Life and career

Roche was born on 15 May 1885 in Chelsea, London, the elder of twin sons of the Hon. James Roche (later Baron Fermoy) and his American wife, Frances Ellen Work.

He was educated at Harvard University and graduated in 1909. He returned to England on succeeding to his father’s Irish peerage in 1920. He was a naturalized American citizen but resumed British nationality following his succession to the title.

He rented Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk from the royal family. At the 1924 general election, he contested and won the local parliamentary constituency, King’s Lynn, holding the seat until he stood down at the 1935 general election. He was also elected the town’s mayor in 1931.

On 17 September 1931, Lord Fermoy married Ruth Sylvia Gill (the youngest daughter of Col. William Gill) at St. Devenick’s, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire and they had three children:

• Hon. Mary Cynthia (b. 1934), married (1) Hon. Sir Anthony Berry (divorced 1966), (2) Denis Geoghegan (divorced 1980), (3) Michael Gunningham (divorced 1989)
• Hon. Frances Ruth (1936–2004), married (1) Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp (divorced 1969), (2) Peter Shand Kydd (divorced 1990)
• Hon. Edmund James Burke (1939–1984), later the 5th Baron Fermoy, married Lavinia Pitman

Lord Fermoy joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 at the start of World War II but when the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for King’s Lynn was killed on active service in 1943, he resigned his commission and stood for re-election. He retired from politics when Parliament was dissolved for the 1945 general election.

Lord Fermoy collapsed in a shop at King’s Lynn, Norfolk in June 1955 and died three weeks later. He was succeeded by his only son.

Legacy

His life was the subject of the book Lilac Days, by Gavan Naden and Maxine Riddington (HarperCollins (ISBN 0-00-719863-9)), where it was claimed he had a 30-year affair with an American, Edith Travis.