Prayers were said today for the six Colchester soldiers killed while defending a police station in Iraq.

The military policemen were being remembered at a service of thanksgiving at Chichester Cathedral, close to the home of the Royal Military Police training school.

The service, being led by the Dean of Chichester, the Very Reverend Nicholas Frayling, was arranged to mark the 200th anniversary of the RMP's Roussillon Barracks in the West Sussex city.

The event was instead a sombre one as tributes were paid to the soldiers killed on Tuesday by a mob in the Iraqi town of Al Majar al-Kabir.

They were named as Corporal Russell Aston, Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, Lance Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, Corporal Simon Miller, Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell and Corporal Paul Long, whose wife and family live in Colchester. All were with the 156 Provo Company based at Colchester.

Published Friday, June 27, 2003

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