I know the family is looked after

She lives in Catterick and says she is well aware of the strains on families in the garrison. Last year, while her husband was on tour, Mrs Bell was with a neighbour who discovered that day that her husband had been killed.

“It affected all of us and the children,” she said. “There were other wives whose husbands were more on the front line and had a more rough time than I did. For me, I almost felt guilty that my husband was coming home. We have endured tragedies and we have lost friends.”

She and her three children, Abigail 13, Amy, nine, and Kelvin, three, often take advantage of Ministry of Defence-organised days out when he is on tour, but a lot of the younger partners refuse to get involved.

She said: “Every different house on this street is someone from a different regiment. You tend not to mix around here. I don’t find that it is a close-knit community. The younger ones do need more support.

“Some of the young ones are the ones that worry more.”

When her husband is away, the family often communicate by e-bluey, an email system monitored by the British Forces Post Office and named after the traditional “bluey”, airmail letters first issued during the early days of the Northern Ireland deployment.

Warrant Officer Bell said: “We are a Forces family. I have been doing this since I was 16. We live and breathe the Army. Each regiment has a different outlook on how they look after the families within it. When I went out there I knew they were being well looked after, and that is very important to me.”