Helmand hero was 'best of the best'

PRINCE Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall joined hundreds of mourners yesterday at the funeral of the most senior Army officer killed in action since the Falklands war.

By Richard Palmer, Royal Correspondent

HERO Lt Col Ruper Thornloe s funeral HERO: Lt Col Ruper Thornloe's funeral

Charles was a friend of Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, and had a private meeting with the soldier’s family before the service in central London.

It is very rare for the Prince to attend a funeral service – normally members of the Royal Family send representatives to ceremonies for all but the closest of friends or relatives.

But Lt Col Thorneloe’s death in an explosion in Afghanistan on July 1 shocked the heir to the throne.

Charles, who met Lt Col Thorneloe regularly through his role as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, has described his death in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province as “heartbreaking”.

The hero of Helmand was given a full military funeral at the Guards Chapel in Wellington Barracks.

His widow Sally and mother Veronica watched as eight standard bearers from the regiment lowered their flags in tribute when the hearse was driven into the grounds of the barracks.

Eight Welsh Guards soldiers, making up the bearing party, then shouldered the coffin and carried it into the chapel.

On top of the coffin were the 39-year-old father of two’s sword, his scabbard, forage cap, Sam Browne belt and medals.

A wreath of white roses was also laid on top of the coffin.

Inside, the congregation, including the dead officer’s young daughters Hannah, four, and Sophie, two, heard tributes from former defence secretary Des Browne, who also knew the officer well, and Lt Col Thorneloe’s father, Major John Thorneloe, who read a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress on the nature of dying.

The congregation, who sang hymns including Cwm Rhondda and Jerusalem as well as Men of Harlech, the regimental song of the Welsh Guards, listened to a poem written by Lt Col Thorneloe when he was just 12 years old.

Mr Browne, who worked closely with Lt Col Thorneloe at the Ministry of Defence headquarters, paid an emotional tribute to him.

“This man simply made the extraordinary ordinary,” he said. “It’s the mark of the man who produced the goods. The mark of how much energy and intellect it required without drama, without breaking sweat and without leaving a trail of debris to mark his contribution as any other people would have done.”

He told the congregation he had kept a memento of their friendship. “I have a letter he wrote to me at Christmas. I shall treasure it for the rest of my life, that is if I don’t wear it out before then,” he said.

“It’s a source of great solace to me because that letter shows that the strength and depth of what I felt for this man was reciprocated by him.”

Then speaking directly to his widow, he reflected on the toll such a job can take on family life.

He said: “As you know more than anyone he was first in and he was last out, he never left the office until the work was finished.”

Mr Browne said his colleague did not let work get in the way of his devotion to his family.

He said: “Every night at bedtime he broke off work not just to tell Hannah and Sophie goodnight, but also to talk with Hannah and share with her the experience of her day.”

The politician concluded by saying: “Rupert has been described by others as being the best of the best and that he was.”

When the service concluded, close family members including his father, wife and mother stood on the steps of the chapel and watched as the bearer party slowly carried the coffin to the waiting hearse.

Lt Col Thorneloe MBE, of Kirtlington, Oxford, was killed with Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, when a huge bomb exploded beneath their Viking armoured vehicle during operations near Lashkar Gah, Helmand province’s capital.

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