The 23-year-old said: “I’m here because I lost two good friends on my last tour of Iraq in 2007.”

He planted a cross for Lance Sergeant Chris Casey, 27, and Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath, 22, who were both killed when their Land Rover hit a roadside bomb north of Basra.

He added: “It was a good service. I’ve been coming here since I was a child.

“A lot of young people are going out to Iraq and Afghanistan and you’re going to get them coming down here to remember friends and family.”

Before the service began Danielle Thomas sang Abide With Me, accompanied by the band of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.

In his opening comments Cllr Storey noted yesterday was the third time in a week that such large numbers had joined together in the city. Last weekend crowds gathered for both a candlelit vigil for brutally assaulted trainee PC James Parkes and also to welcome troops from the 2nd Battalion the Rifles back from Afghanistan.

Reflecting on the service, private Royston Williams, a former field ambulance medic who saw action in Korea, said: “We all have very different views about Afghanistan. Each war’s different. They’re fighting insurgents, aren’t they. We could see our enemy – they can’t, those lads that are fighting in Afghanistan.”