Family and friends lead tributes at homecoming

Joanne Ginley

They stood with their arms linked as the hearse carrying the coffin of Rifleman Luke Farmer passed by.

His friends and family, some wearing red-checked shirts and carrying red roses, had travelled to the market town of Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, to see him returned to British soil amid emotional scenes.

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Five coaches carrying around 200 friends and family had travelled from his home in Upton, near Pontefract, for the repatriation ceremony.

His mother and father, Mark and Angela Farmer, were among crowds who lined the streets, and a rugby shirt of Upton Amateurs, for whom Rifleman Farmer had played, was thrown onto the coffin.

The crowd fell silent as the bodies of Rifleman Farmer and two other soldiers killed in Afghanistan passed through the town.

Capt Daniel Read, 31, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, Cpl Lee Brownson, 30, and Rifleman Farmer, 19, both of 3rd Battalion the Rifles, were flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire yesterday morning.

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Bomb disposal expert Capt Read, from Rainham, Kent, was killed in an explosion in Musa Qala in Helmand Province on January 11.

Father-to-be Cpl Brownson, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and Rifleman Farmer died while on patrol near Sangin in Helmand last Friday.