Village salutes home-grown heroes
Parish councillors Brian Chant and Barry Snow organised the Sunday evening event, during which council chairman Frank Bryant said: "The number of people involved in Afghanistan and Iraq living in the village is quite remarkable."
Marnhull Royal British Legion branch president David Pender-Cudlip presented each serviceman with a certificate of appreciation, saying: "This presentation marks the individual contribution to the areas where they have served, and celebrates their return to the community and their families, the people who stay behind, who must not be forgotten and without whom the armed forces could not do what they do."
Among them were Mr Pender-Cudlip's son-in-law Maj Matthew Botsford, second in command of the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards Welsh Cavalry. He has served in Northern Ireland, Kuwait, Mozambique, Bosnia and Kosovo, and led troops in the initial invasion of Iraq. His role in the operation led to him being honoured with an MBE.
Maj Botsford, 40, welcomed a tangible shift in UK public support which he said was important to young soldiers. Five of his men had been killed, and around 40 wounded.
He was nearly the victim of a suicide bomber on his last day on the front line.
Capt Eoin Carson, 30, whose parents live in Stalbridge Weston, has been in the army for eight years.
He is serving with The 5th Battalion The Rifles as adjutant of the 8th Battalion after previously serving with the Light Infantry.
"We are the only ones to have done four tours in Iraq, having been in at the start and there to close it down as well. It was a great privilege for us to do that," he said.
Sgt Mike Lindgren now lives in Marnhull with his wife Kate and two daughters and has nine years' service with the 5 Rifles and their predecessors. He recently returned from his second tour in Iraq and said: "It is no longer chaotic there, and we are not trying to fight any more, but helping to provide power, water and schools."
Maj Paul Nolan of the Royal Marines is 41, with a wife and three children, and has just finished the first of two tours with 846 Naval Air Squadron in Afghanistan, where he will be returning later this year. His duties can involve flying for up to ten hours a day in conditions which tested the helicopters to the limit.
"If we had better ones we would supply a better product," he said.
Lt Tom Wardley, 32, has been with the Royal Navy for six years and is married with two children. As a member of the surgical team, he has provided support to the Royal Marines, but last year was seconded to the Army in Iraq to work in the emergency department in the hospital at Basra. He has treated not only military personnel, but also contractors injured by home-made devices, and civilians and children wounded in the Battle of Basra in March 2008. His brother-in-law, Capt David Glendenning, serves in 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, and Marine Max Shackleton, 30, serves with 45 Commando in the Royal Marines Reserve.
Newly retired Royal Military Police RSM Michael Nelson, 45, was involved with training the Iraqi police and river police force, and giving close protection to VIPs visiting the troops. His wife serves with the Royal Signals at Blandford Camp.
Collecting certificates on behalf of their family members were Claire Collins, wife of Cpl Daniel Collins of 4 Rifles; Fergus Cowan, son of Brig James Cowan OBE of The Black Watch; the Rev Michael Ficke, father of Capt Alex Ficke of 1 Rifles; and Lucy Ralph, partner of Pte Gary Matthew of the Royal Logistics Corps.
Earlier in the day, there was a drumhead parade through the streets of Shaftesbury.
The standards of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury branches of the Royal British Legion were joined by those of the Gillingham branch of the Army Cadet Force, the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Air Cadet Force, the Royal Air Force Association and the Gillingham branch of the Devonshire and Dorsetshire Regiment Veterans.
They were led by the Gillingham-based Premier Pipes and Drums of the Wessex Highlanders, parading from Bell Street through Bimport to the war memorial on Castle Walk, where the drums were laid down and ceremonially covered by the standards to the accompaniment of Amazing Grace by the seven remaining pipers, led by Pipe Major Ron Aylin.
Throughout the week leading up to Armed Forces Day, local-government offices have been flying the associated flag. On Monday, South Somerset District Council chairman Ian Martin presented it to Bill Brown, chairman of the Yeovil district rural Royal British Legion branch.
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