IN A sleepy Wiltshire town preparations are under way for a sad sort of ceremony. On November 5th the body of Sapper William Blanchard, killed in Afghanistan, will pass through Wootton Bassett on its way from RAF Lyneham to a hospital in Oxford. This will be the 143rd repatriation that the town has marked since April 2007, says Anne Bevis, a resident who organises them, and several hundred family, friends, veterans and well-wishers will no doubt be on hand. What started as an impromptu gesture of respect by a few members of the Royal British Legion (RBL), Britain’s biggest services charity, has become a ritual that focuses the attention and grief of a nation. Read the rest Here
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