Ed Sheeran's brush with troops
A soldier cheekily roughed up the hair of singer Ed Sheeran for a photograph in Afghanistan – which subsequently went viral after being posted on the internet.
Pte Chris Bagley, of the 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, asked the Brit Award-winning artist to pose with him and fellow soldier Pte Adam Eaton as they turned up at Camp Bastion on Tuesday.
The armoured-vehicle driver, aged 21 and from Pensnett, Dudley, was returning to the military base as his eight-month tour of the war zone comes to an end.
Speaking from the base, he said: "Basically we'd just come off the ground as we were end off touring soon, and it just happened that Ed was making a visit to Camp Bastion to do a show and I got asked if I wanted to meet him. We didn't have long to speak to him so it was just pictures and autographs. We asked if we could run our fingers through his hair because we thought it'd make a cool picture."
Since the picture has been put on Twitter, it has been shared by more than 3,500 users around the world.
Pte Bagley, who attended Pensnett School and is due to return home on April 17, said: "I just didn't expect the picture to hit it off like it did – well surprised. It's on about 5,000 retweets and favourites combined."
