Barracks mourns Redcaps

Veterans from Sussex and beyond joined crowds at Chichester Cathedral to honour the men of the Royal Military Police (RMP) unit.

Tributes were paid and prayers said during what was to have been a celebration and freedom parade marking the bicentenary of the city's Roussillon barracks, the home of the men's regiment, known as the Redcaps.

More than 800 military personnel and civilians attended a thanksgiving service held by the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend John Hind, who told the congregation it would now also reflect the loss.

He said: "It is our primary duty to remember in prayer and thanksgiving the members of the RMP who lost their lives in Al Majar al-Kabir earlier this week and to extend our heartfelt sympathy to their families, colleagues and friends.

"I have been in touch with Lambeth Palace and the Archbishop of Canterbury is deeply shocked and I have been particularly asked to express his sympathy and condolence.

"It is a tribute to the place of the barracks in the local community that Chichester as a whole felt the deaths so keenly. The event was a poignant reminder of the cost of peacemaking, peacekeeping and community building.

"In this world, nothing comes except at a price and those six young deaths are part of the price that is being paid for the reconstruction of a country that has already suffered so much.

"So, alongside our prayer for departed comrades today, let there be a yearning for reconciliation wherever there is conflict and most immediately, of course, both that Iraq may speedily move towards a better future and that all the remaining foreign soldiers on its soil will soon be able to return home safely."

All of the men who were gunned down in the police station on Tuesday had completed their training at Roussillon barracks in Broyle Road.

After this, the six - Corporal Russell Aston, Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, Lance Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, Corporal Simon Miller, Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell and Corporal Paul Long - had moved on to Colchester, where they were serving with 156 Provo Company.

At the headquarters, which is home to the regiment training school, a book of condolence has been opened and flowers have been laid in tribute.

The deaths have been described by as the blackest day in the regiment's history.

As the names and ranks of the soldiers were read out at the service, silence fell over congregation. Fellow soldiers in their distinctive red caps and No 1 dress uniforms stood with heads bowed in contemplation.

The Dean of Chichester, the Very Reverend Nicholas Frayling, said: "We meet at a time of great sadness.

"Six young men of the Royal Military Police died in particularly dreadful circumstances in Iraq earlier this week.

"They had trained here in Chichester, some only a short time ago, and are remembered here with respect and affection.

"The motto of the Royal Military Police is Exemplo Ducemus - We Lead By Example. That is what these men were doing in Iraq, and we thank God for them."

Former sergeant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, John Goodyear, 75, from Horsham, who was stationed in the city in 1944, joined those paying tribute.

He said: "The barracks were very different to how they are now. They are certainly more lavish than I remember.

"We always had strong links with the people of Chichester, even back then."

Fellow sergeant in the regiment Arthur Bissom, had travelled from north Wales to attend the service.

He said: "My clearest memory is of the training because we went up to Goodwood racecourse to do it and trained all over the South Downs."

Before the service, about 100 members of the RMP took part in a Freedom Parade from their barracks to the cathedral.

About 200 old soldiers from the regiment and from other Sussex regimental associations marched in a sombre but dignified parade through the streets.

Onlooker Diane Wills, 72, from Chichester, said: "My father and grandfather were soldiers and some of my family were in the RMP.

"I have very mixed feelings seeing the Redcaps walk past today with what has happened this week but it is important to celebrate the barracks' long association with the city."

Resident Joy Phillips, 83, echoed the sentiments.

She said: "It's a very poignant occasion. We would hate to be without the soldiers from the barracks. It makes you feel safe having them here."

Rebecca Dalwood, 19, from Chichester, brought her 14-week-old son Joshua to see the parade.

She said: "I hope he will be able to take a little bit of it in."

No members of the dead men's families were present at the service, an Army spokes-man said.

However, VIPS including the Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex and the Duke of Richmond and Gordon were in attendance and many went on to a special lunch at the barracks. In the evening a party was held for people living near the barracks.

The ceremony was planned months ago as a chance for the city and the barracks to celebrate their 200-year association.

The barracks were built on the site where executions used to take place and constructed by French prisoners of war after the Napoleonic War and named after a British victory.

They were previously home to the Royal Sussex Regiment, now part of the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment.

The Redcaps have been resident there since 1964.

The six men died after orders, given on Monday, for controversial weapons searches to be halted but a "routine patrol" of Paratroopers and the Redcaps entered the town on Tuesday, triggering scenes of fury among Iraqis who believed they would continue the searches.

The Paras escaped after coming under fire, injuring one of their patrol and seven medics and other personnel in an RAF Chinook helicopter called to the scene. However, the Redcaps were hemmed in by a crowd of hundreds of angry Iraqis who surrounded a police station where the Britons had gone to meet with local policemen.

They called for help some 30 minutes before they died, but their call may have been confused with a call for reinforcements from the Paras.

Their deaths represent the heaviest single combat loss for British forces since the 1991 Gulf War. The killings take the British death toll since the Iraq war began in March to 4.