Staff at RAF Brize Norton received a Royal thank you for the way repatriations have been handled.

The Princess Royal was at the air base yesterday to officially become RAF Brize Norton’s Honorary Air Commodore.

She had held the role at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire before the base closed in September and handed duties including repatriations to Brize.

Princess Anne said: “You now do repatriations from Afghanistan. That is a really important part of your role.

“Everybody will appreciate the way in which repatriations have been carried out at Brize Norton.”

She congratulated them on the smooth transfer from RAF Lyneham and for their recent work in Libya.

She added: “May I congratulate you in all you have achieved. You have got a great deal to look forward to and I look forward to being part of that.”

Princess Anne said she was “delighted” to have taken on the role at the base, which she has visited several times.

She said: “One of my earliest visits to an RAF base was probably to RAF Brize Norton, when I was introduced to the parachute school.

“They never convinced me that there is any point in jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft.”

The Princess Royal was treated to a parade of standard bearers, RAF personnel and the Royal Air Forces Central Band in the Airtanker hanger.

Group captain Dom Stamp, RAF Brize Norton station commander, said: “This is a great honour and it is a very proud day for the station.

“It comes at the end of a year that has seen people of Brize Norton working extraordinarily hard on operations around the world but also undertaking a major transformation programme at the base, which has not come without personal sacrifice.

“It has been an awesome year for Brize Norton – a huge year in the base’s history and historic in the proper sense of the word.

“This is the pinnacle of everything we have achieved over the last 18 months.”

l The repatriation of Senior Aircraftman Ryan Tomlin, 21, who was killed by insurgents in a small arms attack in Afghanistan on Monday, will take place next Thursday.

No time has yet been set for the ceremony.