A YOUNG Parachute Regiment officer who had been selected as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where Prince William is an officer cadet, was named yesterday as one of two British soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Tuesday.

Captain Richard Holmes, 28, of the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, was due to take up his appointment as a platoon commander at Sandhurst later this year.

The other dead soldier was named as Private Lee Ellis, 23, also from the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment. Private Ellis had given up a career in professional football with Wigan to join the Parachute Regiment.

The 102nd and 103rd British soldiers to die in Iraq since Operation Telic began in March 2003 were both serving with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group in al- Amarah, Maysan province, southern Iraq.

Captain Holmes had married his wife, Kate, just before he was sent to Iraq with D Company 2 Para in October last year.

He lived in Winchester, Hampshire. It was his second tour of duty in Iraq. Last night his family asked the Ministry of Defence not to make his photograph available for publication.

Captain Holmes joined the Army in 2001 and was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Parachute Regiment. He served with his battalion in Northern Ireland, and later went on attachment to The Highlanders before returning to the Parachute Regiment in April last year.

Private Ellis, who lived in Wythenshawe, Manchester, with Sarah, his fiancée, and Courtney, his daughter, joined the Army in 2003, completing his basic training at Catterick in North Yorkshire. As well as being a skilled footballer, he was a keen boxer.

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