Crowds mourn 200th killed soldier

(PA)

The scene around Abergavenny cenotaph was a sea of colour yesterday as the family of the 200th soldier to be killed in Afghanistan had asked the hundreds who gathered to remember him to avoid wearing black.

Yesterday would have been Pte Richard Hunt's 22nd birthday. But instead of posting his cards to Afghanistan, his parents Hazel and Phillip laid them by the cenotaph, along with a wreath to commemorate the young man described by fellow soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Welsh as "dedicated and selfless".

Pte Hunt died a week last Saturday in hospital in the UK, two days after being hit by a bomb in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Yesterday, his home town in Monmouthshire was brought to a standstill by the sound of "The Last Post", and hundreds fell silent for a minute.