Wootton Bassett pays tribute to high ranking officer (From This Is Wiltshire)

Wootton Bassett pays tribute to high ranking officer

2:27pm Monday 6th July 2009

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Hundreds of people today turned out to pay their respects to two soldiers killed in Afghanistan - including the highest ranking Army officer to be killed since the Falklands War - as their bodies were returned to British soil.

Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed in a blast which hit his Viking armoured vehicle near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, also died in the explosion.

Both men were flown into RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire, at 11.05am this morning on board a C-17 Globemaster, where a private ceremony for close relatives was held in a chapel.

As has become tradition, the coffins, adorned with Union Jack flags, were driven to the nearby town of Wootton Bassett for a memorial procession.

Under overcast skies and heavy showers, members of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment lined the streets of the town alongside Royal British Legion veterans, shopkeepers and residents to pay tribute to the fallen men.

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