Prince William returned from his short visit to Afghanistan with the body of a soldier killed in action, it emerged yesterday.

Flying Officer Wales accompanied the body of Trooper Robert Pearson during the return flight from Kandahar Air Base after his secret trip to the warzone.

Upon his return, the Prince held a private meeting at RAF Lyneham with the family of Trooper Pearson, who died on April 21 when his vehicle hit a mine.

While the Ministry of Defence insisted that the 30-hour trip with the air crew of a RAF C17 had been planned nearly a month ago, it was criticised by some fellow servicemen and royal-watchers as a public relations exercise.

They claimed it was an attempt to “cover over” the controversial decisions to grant the Prince permission to fly RAF Chinook military helicopters to a stag party on the Isle of Wight and also to his girlfriend's home. It was also suggested that he did not want his military service to be overshadowed by Prince Harry's tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Ken Wharfe, a former royal protection officer, said that Prince William would have been in no real danger during his visit.

He said: “There is an element of risk but there would be no way security officials would allow it to happen. It would be pretty well sterile while he was there.

“I'm slightly sceptical about this. I think the cynics amongst us will say it's an attempt to cover up the Chinook jollies.”

The Stop The War coalition described the visit as a “shameful waste of public money” and accused the Ministry of Defence of using troops in Afghanistan to try to “cleanse” the Prince's image.

The decision to repatriate the body of the 22-year-old member of the Queen's Royal Lancers was unrelated to the presence of the Prince being on the flight, it is understood.

While the details of Prince William's meeting with the family were not released, the soldier's relatives from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, issued a statement.

It read: “We can confirm that we had a short private meeting with Prince William at RAF Lyneham and we now request that the media respect our need for privacy as we come to terms with our loss.”

The trooper was killed when a mine went off as he was protecting a resupply convoy returning to Camp Bastion, Britain's main base in Helmand province.

Trooper Pearson was the 94th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since the launch of the US-led war against the Taleban in 2001.

The Prince of Wales and the Queen gave their consent to the Prince's trip, Clarence House said.

During the exercise William flew a C17 Globemaster military transport plane that left RAF Brize Norton on Sunday, arriving in Afghanistan the next day.

The official purpose of the trip was for the Prince to familiarise himself with RAF operations in a battle situation. An MoD source said the suggestion that the trip was a public relations exercise was “absolute nonsense”, adding that the possibility of the Prince joining a flight into an operational theatre had been under consideration last year.

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