APRIL 30

Lance Corporal James McCue, 27, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, died after being wounded in an explosion in southern Iraq. Corporal McCue, who had represented Scotland as a junior sprinter, was a member of 7 Air Assault Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Corporal McCue's mother Mary said: "Words cannot express the depth of our grief but mixed with our profound sadness there is pride in the knowledge that he died a soldier while serving his country. He will be remembered by all who knew him, forever."

APRIL 22

Lieutenant Alexander Tweedie, 25, who was serving with D Squadron of The Blues and Royals Household Cavalry Regiment, was injured when a vehicle overturned on April 1 during operations in southern Iraq.

Lieutenant Tweedie, who was originally from Hawick in the Scottish Borders and was single, joined the Army in September 2000 and was commissioned in August 2001, the Army said. He served with the Household Cavalry in Windsor.

APRIL 6

Kelan John Turrington, 18, the youngest Briton killed in the Iraq conflict, died in action as British troops stormed Basra.

Fusilier Turrington, one of three soldiers killed in the fighting for Iraq’s second city, had wanted to be a soldier since he was a small boy. His father, John, 54, and mother, Ann, 46, never tried to change their son’s mind. From the age of four, Kelan would dress as a soldier to wait in the driveway of his home for his father to come home from work at the army training barracks in Catterick. The boy’s head would be swallowed by his father’s outsize beret bearing the red and white hackles of the Fusiliers.

During Kelan’s school days he wanted only to be a soldier. Stephen Munday, principal of Comberton Village College in Cambridgeshire, said: "Kelan was always totally reliable and trustworthy.

"He was very well-liked and popular with his classmates and the entire school staff." His brother, Liam, 15, who is still at the same school, said: "He was a great brother and a good friend."

Kelan, a West Ham United supporter, left school in 2001. He was a member of the Army Cadet Force in Cambridge before joining the 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Kelan was based in Germany before his posting to the Gulf.

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