From today’s Sunday Telegraph, “Mother’s Day: Today Will be Hard,” a mother’s thoughts of her son killed in Afghanistan.
We were all so proud of Rupert. He was a wonderful son, brother, husband and father, though frantically untidy. In other ways he was very organised but his filthy jeans were always left on the stairs for mummy to pick up. He was also very good with people, which made him a very fine soldier. John and I hadn’t realised quite how highly regarded he was – as parents you don’t – until we read the obituaries, and heard the tributes at his funeral. General Dannatt called him “an outstanding commanding officer and a born leader”; Des Browne, with whom he had worked at the MOD, called him “the best of the best”.
