In July 2009, the loss of eight soldiers in two days was widely reported as the bloodiest 48 hours for UK forces in Afghanistan.
Private John Brackpool of 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards and Rifleman Daniel Hume of 4th Battalion, The Rifles died on 9 July in separate incidents. Corporal Lee Scott of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment died on the 10 July north of Nad-e Ali and on the same day, five men serving with 2nd Battalion, The Rifles were killed in a multiple IED blast in Wishtan.
Their bodies were returned to the UK on 14 July and driven through the town of Wootton Bassett, with considerable media coverage of what was the largest repatriation to date.
Repatriation flights carrying the bodies of UK service personnel had been landing at RAF Lyneham since 2007. The route to the John Radcliff hospital in Oxford took the funeral corteges directly through the town of Wootton Bassett. Starting with an impromptu tribute by the town’s Mayor as the first cortege passed by, gradually more and more people came out to pay their respects each time the funeral cars travelled down the high street.
The local British Legion and veterans groups helped spread the word when repatriation flights were expected and by 2009, hundreds of people – not just locals but many from further afield – were travelling to Wootton Bassett for each repatriation. Media attention grew too, to the unease of many of the locals and others uncomfortable at the intense focus on grieving families.
In 2011, Wootton Bassett was granted permission to add ‘Royal’ to its title, to mark how the town had honoured the war dead. The same year, repatriation flights were re-routed to RAF Brize Norton. The final and 167th repatriation through Wootton Bassett took place in August 2011.
These photographs were taken in Wootton Bassett on 14 July 2009 during the repatriation of the 8 soldiers killed in Afghanistan on 9 and 10 July. They are accompanied here by the reflections of IWM photographer Richard Ash, who documented the event for the museum.
“Ex-service personnel from previous conflicts had started to turn up to pay their respects too, and this evolved into the families of the deceased also lining the route that the procession of hearses took.”
“As a museum photographer, our approach to recording such events differs from a press or agency photographer. We have no brief to speak of.... We want to record as objectively as possible. The build-up, the organisation, the press coverage, the crowd, the place, these are all as important as the actual procession. In 50 or 100 years this may help tell the story, help people understand, add to the story as a whole.”
“You have got to get the shots to communicate what is happening, but with something as sensitive as this, I think there needs to be a level of respect especially for the families that are grieving.”
“A respectful applause followed the cortege along the high street that was flanked by hundreds of mourners and townspeople.”
“As the procession made its way past the guard of honour through the silent high street, family and friends broke down, threw flowers onto the hearses and shouted their goodbyes."
“It’s a day I won’t forget. It was my first encounter with such grief for a conflict that was still happening. It wasn’t something that happened to my grandparent’s generation. This was my generation, my contemporaries.”
“In 5 minutes it was over, people filtered back onto the road, paid their respects at the town memorial, by now surrounded in flowers, and slowly trickled back to continue their own lives.”
