Body of Kidderminster soldier Richard Brandon returned home
The fiancee and daughter of a Midland soldier killed in Afghanistan sobbed on streets of a military town yesterday as his body was returned home.
Lance Corporal Richard Brandon, 24, was killed in Gereshk, Helmand Province, this month when the vehicle he was travelling in hit a roadside bomb.
After the body of L/Cpl Brandon, of Kidderminster, was returned to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire in the morning, it was driven through Wootton Bassett where hundreds lined the streets in tribute.
In the crowd were his fiancee, Emma-Jayne Webster, and their daughter Kaitlin, who wept as the cortege passed by.
The three-year-old was held tightly in her mother’s arms – along with a teddy bear – during the heart-rending goodbye.
L/Cpl Brandon also leaves behind stepsons Martyn, 12, and Liam, nine. The younger boy was pictured at the ceremony giving a salute.
After her partner’s death, Ms Webster, 27, said in tribute: “Richie was a wonderful fiance and father, and stepfather to Martyn, Liam and our daughter Kaitlin.
“We couldn’t have asked for more. He will be very sadly missed by all that knew him. He loved his job.
“I feel privileged to have spent four and a half years of my life with him. He was one in a million.”
Earlier, she said: “He always called Kaitlin his pretty princess and she always called him her daddy daddy.
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