The Last Post for soldiers of war

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 9

The Last Post for soldiers of war

NZPA-Reuter San Carlos

Falklanders and Britain's Army garrison made their final farewell yesterday to the 255 men who died recapturing the remote South Atlantic colony from Argentina.

The 40-minute ceremony took place on a grassy slope just above the beach-head on which British troops had made their first landing on May 21. The British Defence Secretary, Mr John Nott, the Civil Commissioner of the colony, Sir Rex Hunt, and the garrison commander, MajorGeneral David Thornem, led the mourners at a new military cemetery where 14 of the fallen servicemen were laid in permanent graves. During the service, the Navy auxiliary ship, Sir Bedivere, hoisted anchor and' set sail for Britain carrying the bodies of 64 fallen servicemen whose families have chosen to have them buried in their homeland. As the Sir Bedivere left, a wreath was cast on the choppy surface of San Carlos water to commemorate the 174 sailors and merchant seamen who had died in the fighting and are buried at sea.

Three servicemen have, at their families' wish, been left in battlefield graves.

About 200 servicemen, islanders and a handful of officials attended yesterday's reburial service. The return of the bodies aboard Sir Bedivere breaks a long tradition in the British forces which have always buried their dead near the battlefields on which they fell. Pressure from families in Britain persuaded Mr Nott and the Government to agree to send home those who fell on land.

A firing party of a dozen soldiers fired volleys over the graves after the Union Jack flags had been removed from over the coffins and the coffins had been lowered.

A bugler sounded the Last Post and Reveille, and a single piper played a lament. Seven helicopters and four Harrier jets flew over in a fly-past.