This was the vehicle being used by Corporal Sarah Bryant and SAS reservists Corporal Sean Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Paul Stout when it was blown up by a roadside bomb in Helmand province on Tuesday.

Though she was the first female fatality, 105 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

In another controversy the BBC was forced to apologise after fashion pundit James Sherwood described two Ascot racegoers in black as looking like “war widows” on the day the deaths were announced. Meanwhile Carl Bryant was being comforted at an undisclosed military base in the UK last night. His wife died on her first tour of duty apart from him. 

Since falling in love shortly after joining the Army, they had completed two tours in Iraq alongside each other.  Both worked for the Intelligence Corps. 

But Sarah went on her first solo tour in March.

From Carlisle, Cumbria, she worked in psychological operations group, the specialist branch which misleads the enemy with sophisticated “mind games”.

Her family also spoke yesterday of their agony and pride over the girl they had nicknamed their “angel of the north”.

Her mother, Maureen Feely, 54, said: “She wanted to do something different, with a bit of adventure, and she loved the life. 

“Apart from the heat she was in really good form and enjoying everything she was doing.” Mrs Feely, who is separated from Sarah’s father Des, added: “She was beautiful. She was wonderful and she was just so brave.

“The Army was her life. she’s paid the ultimate price for that.”

Her father Des, 55, a Conservative club steward from the village of Cotehill, near Carlisle, said: “Sarah was incredibly bubbly, always smiling, and would light up any room. Smile was her buzzword.

“At her wedding she had a horsedrawn carriage and Carl was dressed in his blues. It was the most perfect day anyone could possibly wish for. How is her husband going to get over this?”

His daughter went to primary school in the village and then to Caldew School in Dalston, near Carlisle, leaving after taking A levels to join the Army.

She was a keen horsewoman, and for years had a horse called Monty. He made it into the newspapers because of his habit of giving rides to Sarah’s labrador puppy Tyler. 

“Monty and Tyler really hit the headlines. Sarah found it hilarious,” said Mr Feely.

He said he last heard from Sarah two days ago when he got an email saying both she and Carl were to be promoted to the rank of sergeant.

He added: “I hope those people are proud of what they have done by blowing her to smithereens.”

Her commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Suggit, at his base in Chicksands, Beds, said: “Sarah had the brightest future, both in her career – where she had been pre-selected for promotion – and her personal life. She was a beautiful young woman and utterly professional. She had courage, passion and flair.”

Family friend Terri Cartner, from Carlisle, said: “I remember Des showing me a picture of her with her unit, surrounded by all these huge men. She looked like a rose amongst lots of thorns.”

The row over the thin-skinned Snatch vehicles intensified yesterday. 

Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who was involved in the procurement programme for  the vehicles 16 years ago, told the Commons they were “death traps” and “entirely unsuitable for operations in Afghanistan”. 

He said the only reason they were there was that “it’s all the military – or the Army – have got.”

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said Army commanders had told him they still wanted the Snatch vehicles, which could carry out duties that would be more difficult to undertake in the more heavily armoured 16-ton Mastiffs.