“FOR us, Matthew is a hero. He will be in our memories for ever.”

Those were the words of grieving relatives as they welcomed York soldier Matthew Hatton back onto British soil.

The bodies of 23-year-old Lance Bombardier Hatton, Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, and Captain Mark Hale, 42, were flown back to RAF Lyneham from Afghanistan yesterday.

After a private ceremony for immediate family at the base’s chapel of rest, a cortege bearing the bodies of the three soldiers drove through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett on the way to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Among the hundreds of mourners lining the streets of the small town to pay tribute to the fallen heroes were L Bombardier Hatton’s grandparents, Roy and Margaret Carter, his aunts Sandy Phillips and Stephanie Houghton, and his 20-year-old cousin, Sarah Phillips.

They stood silently at the side of the road as the cortege approached, dabbing away tears, before tossing flowers – two yellow sunflowers and a single red rose – on to L Bombardier Hatton’s hearse as it passed.

Blinking back tears, Sandy Phillips, originally from York but now living in Surrey, said: “We’re very sad, but very proud. For us, Matthew is a hero. He will be in our memories for ever.”

For the people of Wootton Bassett, funeral corteges like this have become an all-to-common event. The toll of British dead in Afghanistan has now passed 200. Many of those soldiers made their final journey home through these streets.

But for L Bombardier Hatton’s grieving relatives, yesterday was not a day for politics. It was a day simply for remembering the young man with a cheeky smile who had wanted nothing but to be a soldier.

“He always wanted to be in the Army from when he was a little boy,” Sandy Phillips said. “It was his life.”

Sarah Phillips said: “He was always talking about being in the army. We’re all very sad but very proud as well.”

Matthew’s aunt Stephanie Houghton, from Halifax, said her thoughts were with Matthew’s parents, Jill and Philip, and his sisters Vicky and Becky.

“They were very important to him. He loved them very much,” she said. “Our thoughts are with them.”