Widow's honours plea for soldiers

The family of a soldier killed while serving with a Shropshire-based regiment have said the three comrades who tried to save his life under enemy fire should be honoured with bravery awards.

Sergeant Jonathan Mathews, of The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland died last year while serving in Afghanistan.

The 35-year-old was attached to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment at the time, which is based at Clive Barracks, Tern Hill, near Market Drayton.

His inquest yesterday heard he worked as a mentor and trainer to the Afghan National Army and was on patrol near Lashkar Gah on July 28 when Taliban fighters opened fire on his group.

The group split into two teams and Sgt Mathews moved into a ditch to take cover and find a position to return fire.

As he held up his rifle to shoot, he was hit by a single bullet in his left shoulder, which moved downwards, causing massive internal bleeding. Signalman Lee Townson ran to his aid, but could not get a radio signal to call for help, so had to crawl out of the ditch, under fire, to get a better signal.

Mr Townson said: "As I did so there were bullets landing around me so I threw myself to the ground and had to monkey crawl towards him. He lost consciousness and I couldn't get a signal so I had to crawl back to the compound to radio the other team."

Mr Townson dragged Sgt Mathews for 10 metres to the safety of the compound.

Unit commander Captain Ben Foster came to their aid along with medic Lance Corporal Matthew Narusberg.

Sgt Mathews died before arrival at the hospital at Camp Bastion. Wiltshire and Swindon assistant coroner David Masters recorded a verdict of unlawful killing while on active service.

After the inquest, Sgt Mathews's widow Shona Mathews said: I just want to say thank you to the boys for everything they did. They could have been killed themselves. They should get recognition for what they did."