The latest British soldier to die in Afghanistan was taking part in the daring operation to install a new turbine at the hydroelectric dam in Kajaki.

Lance Corporal Nicky Mason, 26, was killed by insurgents while protecting the dam, which will bring power to many of the millions of Afghans living without electricity.

The complex mission to install the turbine, one of the British troops’ most complex and daring operations since the Second World War, was hailed as a milestone in attempts to win hearts and minds in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. It involved taking 220 tonnes of turbines and other equipment across 100 miles of some of the most hostile and heavily mined territory in Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Mason’s commanding officer said that the soldier had been on a routine patrol to prevent the Taleban bringing heavy weaponry within accurate range of the power station.

Lieutenant-Colonel Joe O’Sullivan, of the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, said: “Those who celebrate the operation to move the turbine to Kajaki should now reflect on the steadfast courage of those who were there beforehand and who still remain, and on Nicky Mason, who has given his life there.

“The hidden story of the Kajaki Dam is the company that patrols north and south of it daily to ensure that the Taleban cannot bring heavy weapons within accurate range, so that the power station can continue to function.”

The soldier, from Aveley, Essex, was the second member of his regiment to die in Afghanistan within 48 hours.

The Ministry of Defence said that Lance Corporal Mason, a martial arts expert and keen boxer, had excelled in the heat and hills surrounding Kajaki.

After joining the Army in 2001, Lance Corporal Mason finished his training at the infantry training centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire, before completing an operational tour of Northern Ireland as well as two tours of Iraq. When he returned from Afghanistan, he was planning to take the selection course to join the counter-terrorist Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

Major Simon Britton, Officer Commanding X Company, at Kajaki, said: “He was an excellent soldier, undoubtedly, but his outstanding quality was his warmth and character. His ready smile was infectious and his effect upon the morale of those who lived and fought beside him will be truly missed.”

Lance Corporal Mason’s family, who have not been identified, issued a statement saying that he was “too dearly loved to be forgotten”.

The soldier’s death on Saturday brought the number of British Service personnel killed in the country since operations began in October 2001 to 120. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, paid tribute to him, saying: “It is also clear that he had made a massive contribution this summer to the work of his company, who have done such an exceptional job, in very difficult conditions, providing security to the Kajaki Dam, a project that will make a strategic difference to the people of southern Afghanistan.”

The military operation, witnessed by The Times, involved a convoy of vehicles, at times 2½ miles long, travelling northwards from the southern city of Kandahar over the course of five days without attracting the Taleban’s attention. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of British Forces in Helmand, said at the time: “In terms of the logistical and engineering challenges, it’s probably been the most significant British military undertaking certainly for a generation, maybe several generations, since the Western desert, the crossing of the Rhine etc.”

It is likely to be two years before Helmand residents start to receive electricity from the dam because new transmission lines will be required.

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