Grieving widow watches the 100th military repatriation
town turns out again as two more dead soldiers are brought home
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The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan clutched a teddy bear yesterday as she watched his coffin pass through a town hosting its 100th repatriation ceremony.
Nicola Marlton-Thomas, 30, held the bear emblazoned with the slogan “You’re Terrific” as she stood in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire.
The body of her husband Cpl Loren Marlton-Thomas, 28, of 33 Engineer Regiment, was flown back to RAF Lyneham yesterday before his cortege drove along the nearby town’s High Street.
Returning with him was the body of Rifleman Andrew Fentiman, 23, of 7th Battalion The Rifles. Cpl Marlton-Thomas, of Braintree, Essex, and Rifleman Fentiman, from Cambridge, died in separate incidents in Helmand province on Sunday.
Rifleman Fentiman’s partner Jo also watched the parade.
Cpl Marlton-Thomas’s cousin, Lieutenant Colonel James Rutter, 53, of the Army Air Corps, said: “He was a page boy at my wedding 25 years ago. He was in a replica of my number one dress suit – he wanted to be a soldier for most of his life. He managed to fall off a pew halfway through the vows.”
He said of Mrs Marlton-Thomas: “She is extremely brave. I admire her greatly.”
Rifleman Fentiman’s cousin Phil Francis, 16, of Bristol, said: “Andrew was proud to be out there. We are proud of that group.”
Mayor of Wootton Steve Bucknell said of the milestone: “From our point of view, there’s no difference between one and another. But I suppose for those who do count these things, it is a way of marking just how costly this war has been.”
Anne Bevis, a Royal British Legion secretary who has been involved with the repatriations from the beginning, said: “We don’t discuss politics – we are simply here to pay tribute to the lads who have lost their lives. We hope their families and friends take some comfort in knowing that people care.”
Over the past two-and-a-half years the town has become the focus for the nation’s mourning of the deaths of troops in Iraq and Afghan-istan. People have appeared along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British personnel were first brought home through RAF Lyneham in April 2007.
At first there was only a handful of mourners, led by members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion. But as awareness of the ritual has grown, Wootton Bassett has seen crowds of hundreds and sometimes thousands turn out to honour the dead.
Rifleman Fentiman was killed a fortnight after saying he was “still waiting” for promised new body armour and helmets.
The TA soldier, who volunteered for Afghanistan to pursue his dream of becoming an officer in the regular military, was shot while on a foot patrol near Sangin. Two weeks earlier he posted a blog in which he wrote: “We are still waiting on these new body armour and helmets that were promised to us.”
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