
Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 2010, Captain Andrew Griffiths, 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, died in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham from wounds received twelve days earlier in Afghanistan. He had been leading an operation in the Nahr-e Sraj district of Helmand province when he was caught up in an explosion. He was attended to immediately and then sent home for treatment, but could not be saved and passed away with his parents by his bedside.
Brought up in a military family, he attended Sandhurst and followed his father into the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Prior to that he had taken European and International Studies at Loughborough University. He is remembered as a personable young man who inspired respect and affection, and his character and attributes pointed to his effectiveness as an army officer with great potential. Those who served with him remarked on his humility and absolute dedication, his inner strength and courage, and his natural ability to command troops in battle while never wavering from his duty of care for his men.
Lieutenant Colonel Robbie Boyd said: “Captain Andy Griffiths was an officer with courage, charm, values, humility and above all else a sense of fun….an inspirational leader of Lions of England, a regimental son. He was a man who loved his regiment and respected his men and all reciprocated. I needed him for Arnhem Company; an impressive early step up for someone so junior…his men - to his deep embarrassment - all asked, in front of him, if he could stay on as their officer for the demanding tour that we now find ourselves embarked upon in Nad ‘Ali and Nahr-e Saraj. His humility was his trademark and the respect from his Lions was genuinely the most impressive I have seen in a young officer in my twenty-four years in the infantry. In twelve months of deployments to central Helmand I have never seen so many soldiers requesting that their tributes be included as words that will follow my own. For myself it has been difficult to write without fighting back a tear, I know that is also the case with my soldiers. He became a lion of a man; courageous, proud of his regiment, fearsome in battle and a friend to his peers. In our regiment we have the unique honour of being ‘Lions of England’. In our regiment Lions are led by Lions. Captain Andy Griffiths was one of our finest Lions. A leader of Lions, a Lion of a man.”
Andrew, from Richmond in North Yorkshire, was 24 years old.