MORE than 80 people gathered on the A420 just outside Faringdon to pay their respects to fallen soldiers this afternoon.

Royal British Legion standards were lowered in salute as the bodies of Rifleman Mark Turner, of 3rd Battalion, the Rifles, and Guardsman Michael Sweeney, of 1st Battalion, the Coldstream Guards, passed on their way from Raf Lyneham, in Wiltshire, to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital for post mortems.

It was the 61st time people had paid their respects at the Folly Hill layby.

Organiser and Royal British Legion member Joy Blake said: “We’ve been doing this since December 2008. We started because we knew Wootton Bassett were doing it and we had seen them come along the A420.

“We have different branches of the legion attending and this time we were joined by the mayor of Wantage, our MP Ed Vaizey, and people from Maidenhead, Newbury and Bampton. It was also the first time we had people from Highworth.”