LIEUTENANT Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, who was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, was commanding officer of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.

The 39-year-old, who died last week, was the most senior officer to be killed in action since the Falklands conflict in 1982.

Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, from Plymouth, Devon, also died.

Lt Col Thorneloe leaves wife Sally and daughters Hannah, four, and Sophie, two.

His parents, Major John Thorneloe, and Veronica, a guide at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, live in Kirtlington, where he also went to live.

Since then, the family home in the village was his base, although he lived in a succession of Armyaccommodation.

He was educated at Mrs Robinson’s playgroup in Kirtlington, then at a small school in Little Tew, followed by Cothill House School near Abingdon.

From Cothill, he won a scholarship to Radley College.

After Reading University, he went to Sandhurst, and was then commissioned in the Welsh Guards.

As a child, he played polo for the Bicester Pony Club, and in his final year in the team won the saddle of honour for the best player in the country.

Once in the Army, he gave up polo and took up sailing, before selling his yacht, Valentina, to spend more time with his family.

Villagers spoke of their shock following the death, and veterans lined roads near the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford when the cortege carrying the coffins of Lt Col Thorneloe and Trooper Hammond came past.

In the Army, Lt Col Thorneloe served in Northern Ireland, spending a year as an intelligence officer with the Royal Ulster Constabulary in South Armagh.

He was later posted to Bosnia and in 2004 became operations officer in Germany.

He was awarded the MBE for his work in Iraq in 2006 and became military assistant to the then Defence Secretary Des Browne.

He left for Afghanistan last year.