Tonight:
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Mourners line the streets for fallen officer’s return
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent06.07.09
Hundreds today turned out to pay their respects to two soldiers killed in Afghanistan, including the highest ranking officer to die in combat since the Falklands War, as their bodies were returned to Britain.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died in a blast which hit his Viking armoured vehicle near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province last Wednesday. Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was also killed in the explosion.
The men were flown into RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, at 11.05 this morning, where a private ceremony for close relatives was held in a chapel.
The coffins, adorned with Union flags, were driven to nearby Wootton Bassett for a procession. Under overcast skies and heavy showers, members of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment lined the streets with Royal British Legion veterans, shopkeepers and residents.
Among the crowd were members of Lt-Col Thorneloe's family. His cousin Wilbur Heynes, a sculptor from Oxfordshire, said the commanding officer was a great friend: “Reading tributes to both soldiers, the range and depth, and the respect shown, is very touching.”
Two soldiers who died in southern Afghanistan on Saturday were today named as Lance Corporal David Dennis, of The Light Dragoons, and Private Robert Laws, of 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment.
L-Cpl Dennis, 29, from Wales, who was engaged to be married, was killed by a bomb while helping move casualties to a helicopter. Pte Laws, 18, of Worcestershire, was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle.
