Bournemouth's Jonny Allott repatriated to Wootton Basset (From Thisisdorset)

Bournemouth's Jonny Allott repatriated to Wootton Basset

8:30am Friday 12th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(8)

AROUND 100 people made the journey to Wootton Bassett on Thursday to show their respects to Rifleman Jonny Allott.

There were an estimated 30 relatives and more than 50 friends watching as the 19-year-old from Kinson, Bournemouth, was returned from Afghanistan.

They wept and laid flowers on the hearse of the former Kings High pupil as it moved through the Wiltshire town.

I can’t understand this war. I don’t know what we are fighting for anymore

Ann Johnson grandmother of Rifleman Jonny Allott

Rifleman Allott died from wounds after an explosion in Sangin, northern Helmand, on Friday (March 5).

Step grandmother Madeline Kelly, 64, from Swaland, north of Newcastle, said: “He was operating a metal detector.

“His metal detector hit a wire and that set it off.”

At Christmas he’d said he would rather be the one doing it than someone else.”

She also said: “He had lots of friends and he was going to make the army his life.

“I can’t understand this war. I don’t know what we are fighting for anymore.”

His body, and the bodies of four other members of The Rifles, the successors to the Devon and Dorsets, were flown into RAF Lyneham for a private family service.

Then, after the town’s St Bartholomew’s church bell started tolling at 2.38pm, they were driven slowly past the war memorial.

Jonny’s twin brothers Marc and Daniel, 15, smartly dressed in suits and blue shirts and ties, laid their own flowers.

Jonny’s mum Andrea, sister Nikki, 24, and girlfriend Stephanie Orr, 23, were clearly devastated. Rifleman Wayne Woodward, 24, of Leicester, was one of Jonny’s friends from training.

He remembered how welcome Jonny made him feel when he joined a new platoon. “He sort of hugged me with his words. He was a warm hearted bloke, an asset to the team.

“Anything he was tasked to do, he did it.

“He wasn’t the fittest of blokes at first but by the end he was in the top five. He worked his way up.

“It’s tragic. He loved fighting for his country. He was very patriotic.

“He’s the first mate I’ve lost. Obviously it’s a job, and you know there’s more to come. It’s upsetting.”

Lance Corporal Jamie Liddell, 22, from Telford, also served in Jonny’s unit, 3 Rifles, until he was evacuated with hearing damage from an Improvised Explosive Device.

He said: “I spoke to him a couple of times and you could see from his work he was a professional.

“He was also polite and well mannered.

“It’s quite depressing seeing the news of casualties because our boys are out there and we are stuck here.”

He said of the Wootton Bassett tributes: “It’s the least we can do to show our respects, they deserve it.”

Friends from Bournemouth remembered Jonny’s cheeky smile, love of garage music, nights out in Aruba and Gala Casino, and the Moped summer of 2006.

Neilie Baines, 20, of Ferndown, said: “He always said he wanted to go out in town wearing his desert outfit.”

They also remembered how he appeared to get out of every scrape and they thought the same would happen when they heard he was injured.

Mikey Eldicott, 20, a kitchen porter of Kinson, said: “We just thought he would pull through.” Cousin Mark Champney, 25, originally from Bournemouth, now living in Aylesbury, said: “He was always polite. “He liked rugby and the team in Newcastle.

“When he had R&R he couldn’t wait to go back out there.”

Also repatriated from The Rifles were Corporal Stephen Thompson, 31, of Devon, Corporal Richard Green, 23, of Reading, Lance Corporal Thomas Keogh, 24, of Paddington, and Rifleman Liam Maughan, of Doncaster.

Serjeant Gavin Sharrock, a Rifles soldier from Devon, said he ‘felt sick’ every time he heard about a regimental death on the news.

Wootton Bassett resident Geraldine Caldwell said of the repatriation tributes: “It never seems to get any easier. You still think how awful it is. There seems to have been one every week since Christmas.”