FORMER STUDENT DIES IN AFGANISTAN

28 May 2009

A soldier nicknamed '007' by his comrades was given a full military funeral yesterday, after he was killed while serving in Afghanistan last week.

Lieutenant Mark Evison of the Welsh Guards was shot in the shoulder by local insurgents, while leading a routine patrol in the Helmand Province in the north of the war-torn country on May 9 and died in a Birmingham hospital three days later.

Dulwich College, the school that the platoon commander attended for five years, flew its flag at half-mast after learning of his death. A statement by the 26-year-old's family, released by the Ministry of Defence earlier this week, read: "Mark led a charmed life in many ways, because of who he was: he was charismatic, caring, optimistic, and always happy, and he drew to himself a wide circle of friends from all walks of life.”

Over 700 people were expected to say their final farewell in a moving ceremony at The Guard's Chapel in St James' Park just after midday on Wednesday, May 27.

Bob Watts, branch treasurer of the Royal British Legion, Dulwich, said: "It is always a sad thing to hear of such news. Within the Royal British Legion, as well as looking after the beneficiary and dependants of ex-servicemen, we are the custodians of remembrance to ensure that the memory of the life lives on.

"This is the first soldier to fall from this area [Dulwich]. There was a young man, Lee O'Callaghan, who was shot dead on August 9 2004 and we mark his grave annually."

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