Vikings home from Helmand

Corporal David Garner, from Sudbury in Suffolk, with Freja, 2, Odin, 11 months and his wife Carly after six months in Afghanistan.

90 soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment returned home from Afghanistan.

The soldiers, from A (Norfolk) Company, returned to Elizabeth Barracks, Pirbright on Friday 23rd April and were met by their families after completing a six-month tour of Afghanistan.

The Battalion, nicknamed the Vikings, had 400 soldiers deployed across Helmand Province working with 3 different battle groups. A (Norfolk) Company was attached to the Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup in Musa Qa’la, C (Essex) Company with the Grenadier Guards Battlegroup in Nad-e-Ali and D (Cambridgeshire) Company formed part of the Danish Battlegroup to the North of Gereshk.

Many of the soldiers have already returned and these were among the final soldiers from the regiment to come home.

Sadly, five members of the Regiment were killed during the deployment. These were: Lance Corporal Scott Hardy, Private James Grigg, Captain Martin Driver, Private Robert Hayes and Lance Corporal Adam Drane.