The family of Lance Corporal Jamie Webb, who died in Afghanistan, have said he would be happy his friends are safe as troops pull out.
Jamie was 24 when he died in March last year from wounds sustained during a Taliban attack on his patrol base in Helmand Province.
The former Wilmslow High School pupil was due to return home just a few days after the attack.
Now troops have been pulled out of the region, his family, who live on Spath Lane in Handforth, have spoken about the conflict.
His brother Luke said: “Jamie would be happy the conflict is over and his friends are home safe.
“All the soldiers should be remembered for the sacrifice they made.”
Jamie joined the Army aged 18 and served with the 1st Battalion The Cheshire Regiment, serving first in Northern Ireland and Iraq.
On return from Iraq he was attacked in a Wilmslow bar and had to undergo two brain operations.
But Jamie fought back to rejoin the Army. He was on his second tour to Afghanisatan when he died.
His dad Dave, married to Sue, spoke to Jamie on the morning of the day he died.
He said: “Jamie was a positive person – the joker who would boost everyone’s morale – but you’d know in the tone of his voice that some days he was on a downer.
“On the day of the incident he said ‘it’s quiet at the moment dad’ and was happy because his bags were packed for coming home and he had a present for each of us.
“That was the last time I spoke to him. We got a knock on the door that night to say Jamie had been in an accident. He had an operation in Khandahar but there was nothing more they could do.
“I couldn’t believe it after speaking to him that morning. I broke down, my legs went from under me.”
The British military base in Helmand was handed to Afghanistan’s army in a ceremony last Sunday to spell the end of the conflict. The UK is preparing to withdraw personnel entirely by the end of the year.
Jamie’s dad struggles to say if the conflict has been worth his son’s sacrifice.
He said: “We wish Jamie was with the soldiers coming home, but I think it’s good they are out of there.
“If I could see Jamie now I’d do all I could to get him to leave the Army. I told him not to join and bet he’s up there thinking ‘I wish I’d listened to dad’. It’s hard to say what I think of the conflict.
“I know it’s what he wanted, to be there helping people.”
