Tears for heroes: Families united in grief as bodies of servicemen flown home

Sergeant Gareth Thursby, a married father-of-two from Skipton, and 18-year-old Private Thomas Wroe, from Meltham, near Huddersfield, were serving with 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment when they were shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand on Saturday.

The body of Lance Corporal Duane Groom, of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, who was killed when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device a day earlier, was also brought home yesterday.

Their bodies were flown into RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, where the Union flag-draped coffins were carried from the plane with full military honours to private services for the families.

They were then driven to John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, pausing at the public memorial garden at Carterton where relatives sobbed as they placed flowers on top of the hearses, while relatives of Fiji born L/Cpl Groom sang hymns. They were supported by more than 300 friends and well-wishers, including many from Yorkshire.

Prayers were also said in Pte Wroe’s home town of Meltham, where members of the community paid their respects.

Sgt Thursby leaves his children Joshua and Ruby and wife Louise, who said: “He was brave, hard working, a loving husband who was a devoted father. Our hero.”

Huddersfield-born Pte Wroe was deployed on July 1, shortly after his 18th birthday and leaves his parents, Michael and Claire, and sister Demi.

They said in a statement: 
“We can’t believe you have been taken so soon from us. You will always be in our hearts for ever and ever.”

Time to end troops’ Afghan ordeal: Page 13.