THE Royal British Legion and members of the public lined Headley Way in Oxford today to salute the cortege of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

The body of 21-year-old Fusilier Jonathan Burgess, of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital for a postmortem.

Fusilier Burgess’s fiancee, Kelly Forest, who is expecting a child in May, was among the crowds in Wootton Bassett paying their respects.

Fusilier Burgess had been in Afghanistan for four months when he was killed in a fire fight while on patrol in Helmand province.

He had hoped to have finished his tour of duty and be back in the UK for the birth of his daughter.

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Lock, his battalion CO, said Fusilier Burgess was marked out for early promotion and referred to him as their “Welsh warrior”.