Poignant tributes paid as marines’ mourned
Eight Royal Marines of Plymouth-based 3 Commando Brigade died in the crash in the Kuwaiti desert on Friday.
Yesterday a bride-to-be placed flowers in a tribute to ‘Sonic’ Hedenskog, 25, who was due to be best man at her July wedding.
Claire Morley, 24, of Exeter, Devon, wept as she spoke of her 23-year-old partner Craig Garnett’s best friend. Both men were deployed to the Gulf on HMS Ark Royal.
“From what I heard and knew of him he was just a lovely guy and that’s what makes it so sad,” she said.
Laying a bouquet at the gates of Stonehouse barracks, Miss Morley said: “I am doing it on behalf of Sonic because his family are out in South Africa. Seeing as I knew him and he was my partner’s best friend, I wanted to let him know we are thinking about him.”
Mr Garnett and his colleagues were “devastated” to learn of his friend’s death, she said.
“I spoke to him on the Friday night it happened and obviously he was in tears. As you can imagine everyone is just devastated because they are so close to each other in their working environment. Something like this just cuts them up.”
Among the floral tributes at the headquarters was a heartbreaking note from the three-year-old son of Royal Marine Ian Seymour.
The note, pinned to a picture of the boy and his mother read: “For my Daddy. I love you loads. So does Mummy. We will miss you always. God bless you. Lots of love from your Baby Bear and Tinkerbell.”
Mr Seymour, 28, of Poole, Dorset, was married to 27-year-old Lianne and leaves behind a young son named Beck.
Last night the family of another Royal Marine killed in the helicopter crash over Kuwait spoke of his “wonderful life”.
Mark Stratford’s family said: “The Royal Marines were Mark’s life and he was dedicated to the regiment.
“He served in many areas of the world and we know he thoroughly enjoyed his 20 years with the corps. He had a wonderful life.”
Another Royal Marine to have died in the crash was named on Saturday as Llywelyn ‘Welly’ Evans, 24, from Llandudno, north Wales.
His father Gordon last night spoke of the family’s devastation at his death. Mr Evans snr, of Llandudno, said in a statement: “On behalf of my whole family I would like to say that we all devastated by the loss of our son Llywelyn Karl Evans.
“Whilst we are deeply saddened we are and always will be proud of him.
“We wish to express our sincere thanks to all of our family, friends and local people for their kindness and support. This has given us great strength.”
Team-mates at Llandudno Rugby Club, where Mr Evans played as a back, cancelled Saturday’s fixture in his memory. Club captain Dave Davies said: “Welly was a superb lad, one of the best. We are all devastated here and our thoughts are with his family. We need some time to ourselves because we have lost a great friend.”
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