EX-SERVICEMEN paid tribute to Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe as the soldier’s body was returned to Oxfordshire today.

More than 100 military veterans gathered in Oxford to salute two soldiers killed in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan last week.

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

Lt Col Thorneloe, 39, from Kirtlington, was the most senior Army officer to be killed in action since the Falklands war in 1982.Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was also killed.

Lt Col David Mead, 67, secretary of the Kirtlington branch of the Royal British Legion, said: “Rupert’s father, Major John Thorneloe, is the president of our branch and he is now in his 80s.

“I know he was very proud of what Rupert achieved and will be very cut up at the moment. There’s no doubt in my mind that Rupert would have made the rank of General – he had a very bright future ahead of him.

“We had all met Rupert at the Remembrance Day services.”

The veterans and members of the public who joined them lined Headley Way, in Headington, as the cortege arrived at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where post-mortems will be carried out.

Jim Lewendon, vice-chairman of the Royal British Legion in Oxfordshire, said it was the 31st occasion in the past 12 months that veterans had lined the route.

He said: “As the cortege passed by slowly, we saluted in silence and then the regimental standards were dipped as a mark of respect.

“We have been doing this as a mark of respect to the families ... it’s the least we can do.”

The C-17 Globemaster plane from RAF Brize Norton, which brought the two coffins from Afghanistan, draped in the Union flag, landed at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, shortly after 11am.

There was a private memorial ceremony for close relatives at the air station chapel, before the cortege passed through the nearby town of Wootton Bassett en route to Oxford, arriving at Headley Way at about 3.30pm.

Fred Swinson, 77, from Woodstock, a former memeber of 45 Commando Royal Marines, said: “This is the biggest turnout here I have seen to date and every conceivable regiment seems to be represented.”

Paul Duffie, a former chief administrator of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, where Lt Col Thorneloe’s mother Veronica works as a guide, said: “Rupert worked as a guide at Blenheim himself for a short time when he finished school. He was very self-assured even then.”

Brian Chadwick, 75, ftom Witney, was one of the members of the public lining the route. He said: “These veterans are fantastic and turn up rain or shine for these ceremonies.

“It seems a fruitless mission in Afghanistan, and if it wasn’t for the professionalism of the troops, then I’m sure more of them would have been killed.”

At Wootton Bassett, there were members of Lt Col Thorneloe’s extended family in the crowd.

Cousin Wilbur Heynes, a sculptor from Oxfordshire, said the commanding officer was a “great friend”, adding: “Reading tributes to both soldiers, the range and depth, and the respect shown, is very touching.”

affrench@oxfordamil.co.uk