Wootton Bassett lowers flag for last time as repatriations move to Brize Norton

Spontaneous honouring of funeral corteges of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq became famous across the world As always, the regulars started turning up many hours earlier than they needed to. Kevin Dunn took time off from his window-cleaning round to stake his place on Wootton Bassett high street, as he had scores of times before. In his bright beret, former paratrooper Dave Soane was easily spotted near the war memorial, greeting old comrades and friends. The town’s councillors were out explaining patiently once again – and perhaps for the last time – how over the past four years this modest Wiltshire town has become such a focus for the nation’s grief. Since 2007 Bassett, as it is known to the locals, has ground to a halt whenever the bodies of British service personnel are driven down the high street after being repatriated through nearby RAF Lyneham. Townspeople and, at the height of the conflict in Afghanistan , thousands of visitors have stood with bereaved families to watch corteges pass through en route to a hospital in Oxfordshire. From Thursday the bodies will be flown into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire instead. To mark the occasion – which comes on the eve of military job cuts – the union flag next to the war memorial in Wootton Bassett high street is being lowered for the final time at sunset on Wednesday. It will be handed over to the people of Carterton, where it will be hoisted in a new memorial garden near Brize Norton. David Cameron sent a “heartfelt thank-you” to Wootton Bassett. “I think they have done a magnificent job. What happened at Wootton Bassett was spontaneous. It was a very beautiful thing.” The Wootton Bassett phenomenon has been extraordinary. “Repats”, as everyone here calls them, were switched from Brize Norton to Lyneham because repairs had to be made to the runway of the base in Oxfordshire. The then mayor was out shopping with his wife when someone from the town council ran out to tell him that a cortege was coming through. He dashed home put on his mayoral robes and stood to attention as the body was driven through. Over the next weeks and months more and more townspeople became aware and involved. Shopkeepers began shutting up when funeral cars came through. Members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion began to turn out with their standards, which they lowered as cars went through. Then friends and families began to join the growing crowds. It became customary for bereaved relatives – if they wished – to join the crowds in Bassett after receiving the bodies of their loved ones in a chapel at Lyneham. Many placed flowers on the cars, some applauded as the cars passed. “It began as a very small affair with just a few dozen people turning out,” said the current mayor, Paul Heaphy. “It grew into something huge.” There was a time, Heaphy admits, when there was a fear the Wootton Bassett repat days had become too big. “In 2009 when casualties were coming back in horrific numbers the world’s media caught hold of it and we were accused of being ghoulish and turning the whole thing into a circus. But it was always just about paying respect to the fallen and giving the families the support we could.” The final repatriation – the 167th – took place on 18 August when the town bore witness to the return of the body of 24-year-old Daniel Clack, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand. Heaphy does not know if similar scenes will be repeated in Oxfordshire. “It would be wrong to tell people they ought to go there. Some will go, others will not.” One of those who will not be going to Oxfordshire is former mayor Percy Miles, whose spontaneous tribute started the phenomenon. “I was amazed it became such a huge thing. Bassett has done wonders over the years. I didn’t go to all of them because it hurt too much and I won’t go to Brize Norton for the same reason. I get too emotional about it all. I feel strongly we shouldn’t be out in Afghanistan in the first place.” Miles will not even be going to the sunset ceremony. “I’m bowing out, leaving it to others,” he said. Most expressed mixed emotions – pride at what Wootton Bassett had achieved, sadness that it will no longer be able to offer the support it has – and some relief that the baton had been passed on. After the ceremony the town council will begin planning for one last set-piece when it is accorded royal status in October for the way it has honoured the fallen. Anne Bevis, the repatriation liaison officer for Wootton Bassett Royal British Legion, said: “The sunset ceremony will bring closure to us. It is quite sad, but I think it’s time for someone else to be able to show their respects from another part of the country. They have a different aspect, a completely different route, a different layout and they can do it their way and really it will still be the same, it will still be a tribute to the boys and girls that have paid the ultimate price.” Military Afghanistan Steven Morris guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 31, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.