Silent tears and gunfire salute at funeral of Peebles Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan
The bearer party carry Alec’s coffin down the steps of the church. Photograph: Alastair Watson
"Alec was doing a job he thought was important" Adrian Lucas - dad of Royal Marine Alexander James Lucas. Published Date: 11 December 2008 By Bob Burgess
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IS life was plucked from him two months short of his 25th birthday by a roadside bomb at Kajaki, in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. And this week an estimated 1,500 people turned out in his adopted Peebles to say farewell to Royal Marine Alexander James Lucas – born January 10, 1984, killed November 24, 2008. He was buried with full military honours after an emotional service in the Old Parish Church where family and friends paid tribute to a local hero. He was carried to his grave by young Marine colleagues and laid to rest to the sound of bugles and volleys of gunfire. Marine Lucas was known to many as Al and it was to Al that Jill Drummond – his fiancée and mother of their baby daughter Cara – penned a handwritten note that lay on his coffin. Part of it read: "You'll live on in Cara and every day when I look into her big brown eyes I'll see you and think of you and hope you are looking down on us." Alec was due to leave the Marines at the end of their current deployment in Afghanistan and he and Jill planned to marry in July. He was killed just a month after arriving in the strife-torn country as part of a 700-strong deployment of 45 Commando, based in Arbroath. Throughout Monday's funeral Jill held the hands of Alec's parents Adrian and Susan. And Dad Adrian had earlier told how he had persuaded his son not join the forces – but that Alec had later changed his mind and signed-up in 2004. The proud dad revealed: "He joined because he wanted to make a difference. He did not have to be killed for us to be immensely proud of him. Alec was doing a job he thought was important."
And the former chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service and a non-executive director of NHS Borders added: "It was strange when he decided to join up, it all came out of the blue. He never showed any military aptitude at all, it was all football, football, and football. "But then several years ago Alec came to me saying he wanted to join up and I talked him out of it. He came back a little later and was very determined, and he got there. "One of the most moving days I have had was his passing-out parade. We were all very proud." And Peebles showed that it, too, was proud of Marine Alec Lucas. Crowds lined the High Street and outside the church, and later they lined the route to the cemetery. A Guard of Honour stood on the High Street; heads bowed and with rifles upturned as the cortege arrived at the foot of the steep steps leading to the double-oak doors of the church. A bearer party of eight slowly, and with great dignity and military precision, carried their colleague up and into the church. Seven were from the rear detachment of 45 Commando still at Arbroath. The eighth was his close friend Mark Bathgate – brought back from Helmand for the funeral. The coffin was draped in the Union Flag and on top lay family flowers alongside Alec's peaked cap, his white belt and brasses. Attached to a wreath of red and white that spelled out the names Jill and Cara was that poignant, final note. On a cushion, Alec’s brother Richard carried his brother’s hard-won green beret and his three medals, which were placed on the coffin at the front of the packed church. Senior officers attending included Brigadier Bill Bunham, the officer in charge of the commando-training centre at Lympstone in Devon, Commodore Charles Stevenson, naval regional commander for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Major Spike Kelly of 45 Commando Group, Royal Marines. Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale, Captain David Younger, represented the Queen. Mourners during the half-hour service heard Richard Lucas tell of the family’s pride when Alec had passed-out as a Royal Marine. Friend Danny Jones said some had thought Alec would not make it – but he had proven them all wrong. And his aunt, Caroline Craig urged mourners to close their eyes and remember him as the person that he was. They sang the hymns Lead us Heavenly Father Lead Us and the lively I Danced in the Morning When the World was Begun. And they recited the Collect [prayer of the Royal Marines] which includes the words “may our laurels be those of gallantry and honour, loyalty and courage”. The coffin was carried from the church to A Life on the Ocean Wave – the tune to which Alec had marched on his passing-out parade in 2004. As the bells above the kirk peeled 12.30pm the bearer party carried their comrade to the waiting hearse as flags were dipped and a piper sounded a haunting lament. Senior officers and football players; long-term friends and those who never new Alec, but wished to pay their respects, marched as one over Cuddy Bridge, up the Old Town and through the Neidpath Gates of the cemetery. The many green berets of retired veterans bobbed in the crowd as if they were floating on the sea.
Once more his comrades carried him shoulder high – this time to his final resting place. The flowers, the peaked cap, the belt and brasses, and finally, the Union Flag were slowly removed. The silence was awesome. The tears that were wept, were wept without sound. It was broken when buglers John Lee and Adam Barber from the Royal Marine Band based at Rosyth sounded a faultless Last Post as the coffin bearers gently lowered their precious cargo into the ground. Then came the guns. Twelve Marines fired three volleys of salute over the open grave. As the gunfire faded came the sound of Reveille. But for Marine Alexander James Lucas – the 126th from Britain’s armed forces to be killed in Afghanistan since October 2001 – there would be no earthly reveille. Alec was born in Southampton, but always considered Peebles to be his home. His father revealed: “When he came home to Peebles, to Jill and Cara, he was very much our son and a family man. “We just did not know how fondly he was thought of until this terrible tragedy. Thanks to:Southern Reporter The Hermitage High Street Selkirk TD7 4DA Telephone: 01750 21581 http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/ Published Date: 11 December 2008 By Bob Burgess What I have found absolutely fantastic, if that’s the right word, since Alec’s death is the response this had from a lot of people who did not even know him or us. “They have all written saying how proud they are of him and that he was doing a fantastic job.” Source: Southern Reporter Location: Borders