Village bids farewell to youngest UK soldier killed in Iraq

The Times ^ | April 29, 2003 | Dominic Kennedy

[MadIvan]

Fusilier Turrington's coffin is carried by pallbearers from his regiment. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA

KELAN TURRINGTON, the youngest British soldier killed in the Iraq conflict, was buried with full military honours at a church near his family home yesterday.

Fusilier Turrington was 18 years and 131 days old when he died in action as troops stormed the southern Iraqi city of Basra on April 6.

The teenager’s coffin was draped in the Cross of St George on which his beret and hackle were placed. The coffin was carried by six pallbearers from the regiment.

His parents Ann, 46, and John “Curly” Turrington, 54, followed close behind with his brother Liam, 15. About 500 mourners gathered at All Saints Church, Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, and outside in the churchyard, where the service was relayed by loud speakers.

Most of Fusilier Turrington’s colleagues from the 1st Battalion were not able to attend as they are still in Iraq. His best friends, Fusiliers Stephen Scott and Darren Bone, were flown in on Sunday to attend the service.

Meanwhile, the most junior-ranking recipient of the Military Cross was honoured for his courage in Afghanistan. Liam Armstrong, a 23-year-old Royal Marine from Carlisle, was awarded the medal for confronting armed men defending a weapons cache.

He is the most junior-ranking soldier to win the bravery award since it was made available to non-officers in 1993. Marine Armstrong’s medal was among more than 100 honours announced yesterday for members of the Armed Forces serving in Northern Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Gulf and the Congo.

[MadIvan]

In memoriam

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Miss Marple]

I want you to know I read every one of the articles about the fallen UK soldiers. I cannot attend their funerals and pay respects, but I can learn their names and towns and remember them in my prayers.

[MEG33]

May he rest in God's arms .I honor the sacrifice of all who have fallen.

[Clive]

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
... There shall be
In that rich earth a rich dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam
A body of England's, breaking English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

(Rupert Brooke, 'The Soldier)

[Cacique]

Pitty it is the young who have yet to live life that pay the price of war.

[Happygal]

De dheis Dé a raibh a anam.

[jackbill]

God bless.

[Grampa Dave]

KELAN TURRINGTON, a brave man and worth millions or billions of Galloways!

[alfa6]

Wth my deepest sympathies for Fusilier Turrington's family.

Utmost Regards

alfa6 ;>{

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Salute !