An English rose returns: Poignant homecoming for heroine soldier and her comrades

It was draped with a Union Flag and adorned with a bouquet of red roses  -  laid by the husband she married less than two years ago.

This was the poignant return yesterday of Corporal Sarah Bryant, the first British woman soldier to die in Afghanistan.

The long road home: Hearses carrying the bodies of the four fallen soldiers parade through Wootton Bassett yesterday

Retired soldiers pay their respects to Corporal Sarah Bryant, Lance Corporals Richard Larkin and Paul Stout, and Corporal Sean Reeve

Another bunch of flowers, placed next to a town's war memorial, was accompanied by a handwritten note saying: 'To a perfect English rose and her comrades. Rest in peace.'

Hundreds turned out to pay their respects as the funeral cortege passed through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, six days since a roadside bomb claimed her life and that of three comrades in Lashkar Gah.

Corporal Bryant, a 26-year-old intelligence officer from Cumbria, died alongside two SAS men, Lance Corporals Richard Larkin, 39, and Paul Stout, 31, and Corporal Sean Reeve, 28, of the Royal Signals.

In a mark of respect, Wootton Bassett came to a standstill at 5.25pm as the four hearses made their way through the town from nearby RAF Lyneham, where they had landed at around 1pm.

Sombre: Corporal Sarah Bryant's body arrives back at RAF Lyneham yesterday

The hearses paused by the town's war memorial as the bells of the local church, St Bartholomew's, tolled solemnly. At the airbase earlier yesterday, the families of the four soldiers had met for the first time.

The bodies of their loved ones had been brought by a C17 transport plane from an airstrip in Helmand province.

They were taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where they will undergo post mortem examinations, after which their funerals can take place.

Corporal Bryant's Army officer husband, Corporal Carl Bryant, said of her: 'Although I am devastated beyond words at the death of my beautiful wife Sarah, I am so incredibly proud of her.

'She was an awesome soldier who died doing the job that she loved.'

Victims: Corporal Sarah Bryant, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin (above) and below, Corporal Sean Robert Reeve (left) and Paul Stout

A fifth of Britain's 8,000 service personnel in Afghanistan are women. She was the only full-time soldier.

The three men who died were all reservists: L Cpl Larkin of Kidderminster,  was a nurse, L Cpl Stout, of Liverpool, worked for a security firm, and Cpl Reeve, of Brighton, was a management consultant.

The four deaths take the number of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan in the last fortnight to nine and 106 soldiers have died during operations since 2001.

Last week Wootton Bassett turned out to pay tribute to five war-dead as the bodies of Lance Corporal James Bateman, 29, Private Jeff Doherty, 20, Private Nathan Cuthbertson, 19, Private Daniel Gamble, 22, and Private Charles Murray, 19, were flown back.

The five all served with the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment.

Happy couple: Sarah Bryant and her husband Carl on their wedding day in 2005. He travelled to RAF Lyneham today to meet her body returning from Afghanistan