Lieutenant-Colonel M.W. Roberts
2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

In the actual operation Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts showed outstanding gallantry. After a hazardous landing, he showed great determination in setting up and maintaining Divisional Headquarters in the face of the enemy. His services on that day and in the long advance which followed were carried out without thought for his personal safety and were of the very greatest value to me and the division.

(D.S.O. citation, 24 Jan 1946)

Born in Devonport on 15 December 1907, Michael Wace Roberts was educated at Marlborough College and was commissioned in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1927. After overseas postings in India and Burma during the 1930s, he attended staff college and during the Second World War served with the Home Guard. In December 1943, he was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, which two years earlier had converted to glider infantry.

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