Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 2011, Private John King, from 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was killed in Afghanistan. He had been taking part in a partnered foot patrol with Afghan National Security Forces around the village of Llara Kalay, in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province when they came under fire and he was caught in the blast of an IED.

Private King had joined the army in 2009, and had deployed to Afghanistan just two months before his death. His comrades remember him as a true friend, a big character with a cheeky sense of humour, reliable and popular. Major James Kennedy paid this tribute: “Private King was exactly the kind of soldier you want in your Company. He was gritty, determined, hard-working and quick to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. But above all of this he did everything with a sense of humour. He was never short of a quip or a joke or a cheeky toothless grin. Never the smartest turned-out soldier, but we wouldn’t have swapped him for the world, and I have no doubt that he would have had a long and successful career in the infantry. It’s easy to sum him up because he was just an all-round great bloke. But far more significant than that, he was our great bloke, and that’s why he was special, and that’s why he will be missed so keenly. A Yorkshire warrior through and through, in true Kingy style he died right in the heart of the action, conducting a dangerous mission - something he never shied away from. The loss of Private King has been a huge blow to the Company. You are in our hearts and in our prayers. Kingy - you will be remembered. Fortune Favours the Brave.”

John, from Darlington, was 19 years old.