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03-Feb-2006

Death of hundredth British soldier killed in Iraq marked across country

by: Andrew Frisicano

Birmingham, 1 February 2006, ‘Naming the Dead’.
PHOTO: Karen Bristoll ,

Britain: On 31 January 2006, Corporal Gordon Alexander Pritchard, 31, became hundredth British soldier to die while on duty in Iraq. Across Britain anti-war campaigners gathered to hold vigils and read the names of the 100 soldiers and the names of Iraqis killed during the conflict. Family members of deceased soldiers joined vigils in several towns to call for an end to the war on Iraq.

The families of both L/Cpl Allan Douglas and Colonel Pritchard, the British soldiers killed on 30 January and 31 January respectively, expressed the soldiers’ opposition to the war. In Aberdeen, the vigil was attended by L/Cpl Douglas’s family, who hoped the events would aid the call to withdraw British troops from Iraq. His mother, Diane, said, of her son’s feelings while home during Christmas, “He did not want to go back this time - he'd seen enough the first time he was over.”

Many groups, hoping for a British withdrawal from Iraq, used the event to reiterate the lack of public support behind the government’s policy.

Vigils tool place in towns and cities in England, Wales and Scotland, including Leeds, Glasgow, London, Cardiff, and reflect the weight of public opinion against the war.

The vigils did not limit their grief to lost British lives, but to all human casualties of the war. Rose Gentle, another mother who lost a son in Iraq, said of the ceremonies, "I think this is very important because everyone is just going to remember these boys as a number, but they were someone's kid or dad and they should be remembered like that.”

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there has been a conservatively estimated 30,000 Iraqi civilians casualties in addition to 2,444 coalition troop deaths reported.

On 18 March worldwide demonstrations will be held against the war on Iraq. In Britain the call is for “Troops Home From Iraq” and “Don't Attack Iran”. See http://www.stopwar.org.uk/ for more details.