Hundreds pay their respects at minster

During the remembrance service, prayers were said for Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, and Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, Private Anthony Frampton, 20, Private Christopher Kershaw, 19, Private Daniel Wade, 20, and Private Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, who died when a Taliban roadside bomb destroyed their Warrior armoured vehicle in Helmand Province last Tuesday.

Hundreds of mourners attended the ceremony, many of whom were old soldiers from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, which became the 3rd Battalion in 2006 and has its chapel based inside the minster.

Yesterday news emerged of yet another outbreak of serious violence in Afghanistan, after an American service member killed 16 people – including nine children and three women – in a night-time shooting spree condemned by President Hamid Karzai as “an assassination”.

Mr Karzai demanded an explanation from the US, adding new tensions to a relationship already severely strained over Americans burning copies of the Koran on a base in Afghanistan.

After the hour-long service of prayers, a queue of people added their names to the book of condolence, including retired Lieutenant Colonel Walter Robins, of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

On the steps of the altar in the Wellington’s side chapel more floral tributes were laid

Attached to a white rose, the historic symbol of Yorkshire, was the message: “RIP Lads. Gone but never forgotten.

“Watch over the rest of the lads.”