THE fourth Mercian soldier killed in an Afghanistan car crash was laid to rest in his home village.
Mourners filled Eastham to pay their respects to Private Alex Isaac, who was killed on June 23 alongside three of his comrades from the 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment.
Private Douglas Niall Halliday, 20, from Wallasey; Colour Sergeant Martyn Simon Horton, 34, from Runcorn; and Lance Corporal David Ramsden, 26, from Leeds, all died when the vehicle they were travelling in overturned into the Nahr-e Bughra canal.
Speaking at the service, held in St Mary’s church, Major RA Goodwin told the congregation: “This has been an extremely difficult week for the battalion.”
He added Pte Isaac was a hero who would be remembered for “coming to the rescue, fighting off insurgents”.
He said that Pte Isaac’s team was known informally among the regiment as “Horton’s Heroes” – a name which their bravery had earned them. The 20-year-old’s Union Jack draped coffin was brought into the church on the shoulders of Mercian soldiers as the Coldplay song, Clocks, played. His family and friends, including parents, Annette and John, his brothers Chris and Robert and girlfriend Megan Anyon, heard moving tributes.
