Members of the British Legion lined Headley Way in Oxford last night as two soldiers killed in Afghanistan were repatriated.

The bodies of Sapper Darren Foster, 20, inset left, of 21 Engineer Regiment, and Sapper Ishwor Gurung, 21, right, of the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, were flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

The cortege then made its way to the John Radcliffe Hospital for post mortem examinations.

Sapper Foster, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, died of gunshot wounds in the Sangin District of Helmand last Friday.

Sapper Gurung was helping to build a new sentry post at a base in Nad-e-Ali, Helmand province, also on Friday, when his troop came under insurgent attack.

The young serviceman was deployed to Afghanistan this year on his first operational tour.