Crowds gather as town welcomes Riflemen home from Afghanistan

proud families joined hundreds of onlookers in Doncaster town centre for a homecoming parade for 5th Battalion The Rifles, who have just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Sep 2012, 10:10 BST

Hundreds turned out to watch as the the soldiers, many of them from Yorkshire and the North of England, as they marched through the town on Saturday morning.

Margaret Turner had travelled from Durham to see her son Andrew, 26, before he returned with his battalion to their base in Paderborn, Germany.

She said: “I am so proud. He only joined in March, passed out in September and was in Afghanistan by November. We all think he is very brave.”

Ian Midgley, 25, from Grimsby, was being supported by his mother Shayne who was at the front of a crowd outside Doncaster’s Mansion House.

She said: “My youngest son is also in the Army. Whenever I see them like this, I get so emotional.”

Also involved in the parade were Territorial Army soliders from D (Rifles) Company, 5th Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who are based in Scarborough Barracks in Balby, Doncaster.