TROOPS REMEMBER FALLEN COMRADES

During the ceremony in Lashkar Gah, Helmand, Padre Mark Christian, the senior chaplain of 11 Light Brigade, said the soldiers were there to commit themselves to "the cause of peace and justice throughout the world".

About 500 men and women from numerous regiments attended the ceremony at the compound in Lashkar Gah, where wreaths were laid and a one minute silence was held after a poignant last post.

Many of the soldiers have lost friends and colleagues during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Padre Christian said his own thoughts today turned to a friend who was killed in the Falklands.

"Since then I have held these services in Bosnia and Iraq and here today in Afghanistan and I know many more people who have given their lives."

Referring to the shooting dead of five British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman on Tuesday, he said: "Of course, I was the chaplain to the Grenadier Guards so last week's incident was personal for me too. So I stand here and I grieve, I think of the pain of their passing and I think of their families.

"But that of itself is not what Remembrance is about. When we remember we think of those seas of our comrades who have gone before us, the tens of thousands of people who have given their lives for our nation and for what they believe in.

"I think of our core values, courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment, the values which they espoused. Remembrance for me is picking up the gauntlet, it is steeling ourselves for the fight that lies ahead of us for if we do not do that their lives have been given in vain.

"We are here today to remember, we are here today to commit ourselves to the cause of peace and justice throughout the world."