Five Hampshire soldiers remembered as 1PWRR leave Basra

Each had deployed to the country to fulfil very different tasks but were tragically killed in the line of duty during the past six years.

Yesterday, as British combat operations formally drew to a close, they were remembered in a poignant ceremony and flypast in Basra.

Staff Sergeant Chris Muir, Lance Corporal Steven Jones, Captain Richard Holmes, Private Eleanor Dlugosz and Major Paul Harding all lost their lives between 2003 and 2007.

Their names are now engraved in a memorial wall alongside 174 other fallen comrades which formed the centrepiece of the ceremony.

At Basra’s contingency operating base, which has been the central point of British operations in Iraq, Hampshire soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (1PWRR) played a key part in yesterday’s services which saw control handed over to the American Army.

Prayers were led during the remembrance service by their chaplain Father Pascal Hanrahan, while the names of lost colleagues were read out by Captain Jay Smith.

In the afternoon, as control was handed to the Americans, the flag was brought down by Colour Sergeant Andre Pepper – one of the most decorated soliders in Iraq. He was mentioned in despatches both in 2004 and 2006, when he was first on the scene as a Lynx helicopter crashed in Basra city.

Nicknamed The Tigers, many of the soldiers are on their third tour of duty since war broke out in 2003.

During that time they have faced some of the toughest experiences and worst firefights that has also claimed the lives of their own.

Now, in what is a fitting end, 1PWRR will be among the last to leave as the withdrawal gets firmly under way in coming weeks and their thoughts turn to coming home.

Brigadier Tom Beckett, commander of 20th Armoured Brigade in which The Tigers are part, said the end of the UK combat mission did not end the relationship with Iraq. He said: “We are sad to leave our Iraqi friends, but we leave knowing we have done our job, and done it well. We leave with our heads held high.”

Speaking to the Daily Echo from her Swanmore home, Sally Veck, mum of killed medic Eleanor Dlugosz, said: “I’m glad they are coming out.

Nobody would want to prolong anything like that.”

As she still comes to terms with the death of her 19-year-old daughter whose life was among those remembered at the service, Mrs Veck added; “Losing her doesn’t get easier, you just have to keep yourself busy and carry on.”

Hampshire's fallen

Staff Sergeant Chris Muir, 32, of Romsey. Army School of Ammunition, Royal Logistic Corps.

Staff Sergeant Muir was the third British bomb disposal specialist to die in Iraq, as he dismantled munitions.

He joined the Army in 1988 and became the 26th British victim of the Iraq war.

Originally from Romsey, Chris was a former pupil at Halterworth and Mountbatten schools and Eastleigh’s Barton Peveril College. He left a widow Gillian and a son Ben, who was aged just four at the time.

Acting Lance Corporal Steven Jones, 25 of Fareham. Royal Signals.

Lance Corporal Jones was one of ten servicemen killed in an RAF Hercules crash 18 miles from Baghdad.

He was a communications specialist who was attached to the SAS.

His family said: “Steve worked hard, played hard and lived life to the max. He was always adventurous, fun loving and had a wicked sense of humour. Steve will be forever be in our hearts.”

Captain Richard Holmes, 28 of Winchester. 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment.

Captain Holmes was one of two soldiers killed instantly when an improvised bomb went off next to his armoured Land Rover in the southern city of Al Amarah.

Capt Holmes married his wife, Kate, shortly before leaving for Iraq for his second tour of duty. She is a midwife at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. He had been in Iraq since October 2005.

Private Eleanor Dlugosz, 19, of Southampton. Royal Army Medical Corps.

Pte Duglosz was killed when the armoured Warrior vehicle she was travelling in was hit by a bomb blast.

The 19-year-old, known to her friends as “Ella” or “DZ”, had only just returned to the country after completing a medical course in the UK.

The bomb exploded as they travelled just outside Basra, in the south of the country, during a routine patrol.

Major Paul Harding, 48, of Winchester. 4th Battalion, The Rifles.

Major Harding was one of the Army’s most experienced soldiers, with 30 years’ service. He was killed by mortar fire.

Maj Harding lived in South Wonston with his wife Paula and his sons Christopher and Jake.

Maj Harding was twice mentioned in dispatches posthumously and his name is now engraved on Sutton Scotney War Memorial – the first name to be added since the Second World War.