Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 2013 Lance Corporal Jamie Webb, of 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire), died in an ISAF Hospital in Afghanistan. He had been wounded the previous day during a suicide car-bomb attack on his patrol base in the Nad ‘Ali district of Helmand province. This was his second tour of Afghanistan, and he had also served in Iraq and Northern Ireland. He had enlisted in the army at the age of eighteen, and his first posting took him to Ballykinler on Operation Banner.

On his first tour in Afghanistan, he served as a rifle section second-in-command, and although a Private at the time he undertook the role of a JNCO which earned him the reputation for hard work, strong leadership and reliability. On his second tour he was working as Company intelligence collator and section second-in-command, during which time he displayed a sharp and analytical mind.

Lieutenant Jack Brierley said: “To describe Lance Corporal Webb as ‘a bit of a character’ is an understatement. For a man small in stature, he had a bigger personality than anyone I have ever met. Through the employment of his unique and somewhat left-of-field sense of humour, he made sure that if you were near him, you had a smile on your face.

As a JNCO in 9 Platoon he was a consummate professional. Keen, compassionate, proactive, competent, intelligent are all words that do not come close enough to describing Lance Corporal Webb. The welfare of his soldiers was his primary concern and he constantly checked up on them. He embodied all that a platoon commander could want from a section second-in-command and this was evident in the way that the private soldiers looked up to him for example and inspiration. Needless to say, his loss has left a gaping hole in the Company and even more so in the Platoon. We will not, indeed cannot, forget him and he will be missed dearly by every single man in 9 Platoon. Stand Firm, Strike Hard.” Jamie, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, was 24 years old.