Clutching a red rose, the fiancée of fallen Black Country Marine Jonathan Crookes said a poignant goodbye as she reached out to the hearse bringing the man she described as the “love of my life” home to the UK.

Heartbroken Danni Davis, aged 24, stood with head bowed among hundreds of mourners who lining the streets of Wootton Bassett for the repatriation ceremony of four British servicemen killed in action last week.

Marine Crookes, 26, from Halesowen, was serving with the 40 Commando Royal Marines when he was killed last Friday on foot patrol near Helmand Province.

Miss Davis attended the ceremony at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire alongside his mother Sue and other members of his family. As the hearse stopped for mourners to pay their respects, she stepped forward to place the rose on the car’s roof.

His cousin Sarah Summers, 45, travelled from Shropshire to Wootton Bassett to pay her respects. “It will have a huge effect on his family and fiancée,” she said. “Jonathan was so brave. We’re just so amazed at what he did out there. He was a humorous man and was very passionate.”

Miss Davis said: “He was the love of my life. I can’t explain how much I loved him but I am so very proud of him.”
Comrades

The soldier, who lived with his mother and fiancee, was the 13th serviceman from 40 Commando Royal Marines to be killed.

Comrades have described him as “one of the bravest of the brave.”

A former pupil of Earls High School in Halesowen and King Edward VI College in Stourbridge, he was studying international relations at Aston University and played drums in rock band Distant Signal.

Fellow Midlands soldier Staff Sergeant Brett Linley, aged 29, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, also returned to British soil yesterday.

Staff Sergeant Linley, 29, died in an explosion while clearing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Nahr-e-Saraj.

The Solihull-born bomb disposal expert, of the Royal Logistic Corps, had saved many lives. On one occasion the Birmingham City fan unearthed three IEDs in the space of an hour.