This large memorial has been erected in a quiet corner of Duxford Airfield. It is a memorial to any troop who lost their life whilst on duty with the East Anglian and Royal Anglian Regiments. It was erected in 2010.
The 1st East Anglian Regiment was active from 29 August 1959 - 1964 when, as the result of defence cuts, the the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment amalgamated to form the 1st Battalion, 1st East Anglian Regiment, also known as the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk. The Colonel-in-Chief was HRH Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon.
At its formation the regiment was serving in West Berlin and returned to the UK in 1961. The following year they were deployed to British Guiana, now Guyana, after violence erupted between the African and Indian ethnic groups there. They returned to the UK later that year. In February 1964 whilst on active service in Aden the Regiment was amalgamated with the three other remaining regiments of the East Anglian Brigade, the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire), the 3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot) and the Royal Leicestershire Regiment). On 1 September 1964 they formed one of the new 'large' regiments, the Royal Anglian Regiment; the 1st East Anglians became the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk), and serves as the County Regiment for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Rutland, and Suffolk.
Initially formed of seven battalions (four regular and three Territorial Army), the regiment was reduced in 1975 with the loss of the 4th (Leicestershire) Battalion to three regular battalions and three TA. The regiment was reduced again in 1992 to two regular and two TA battalions with the loss of the 3rd (16th/44th Foot) and 5th Battalions.
The regiment has carried out tours-of-duty in Northern Ireland throughout "the Troubles", Bosnia in April 1994 as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force UNPROFOR, Croatia in July to October 1995 as part of 24 Airmobile Brigade.
Shortly after British forces intervened in Sierra Leone during its civil war, the 2nd Battalion briefly joined the IMATT force in June 2000 to help train the Sierra Leonean armed forces. Then after a break at their home base the R ANGLIAN were sent to Afghanistan in March 2002, in 2005 1 R ANGLIAN undertook a tour in Iraq and in Spring 2006 2 R ANGLIAN deployed to Iraq as part of Op TELIC 8 and formed Basra City South Battlegroup.
From March to September 2007, as part of 12th Mechanised Brigade, 1 R ANGLIAN was deployed again to Afghanistan.
In spring 2014, Task Force Helmand was closed, and Camp Bastion was handed over to Afghan security forces. The last UK combat troops left Afghanistan in October.
Amongst the soldiers remembered here two of them were killed in a friendly fire incident which made the headlines. They were Privates A.J.McClure and J.S.Thrumble killed on 23 August, 2007 when a United States Air Force F-15E fighter aircraft dropped a bomb on the patrol it was supporting. This was found to have been due to an air controller incorrectly confirming one wrong digit of some co-ordinates mistakenly repeated by the pilot, and the bomb landed on the British position 1,000 meters away from the enemy. The coroner at the soldiers' inquest stated that the incident was due to "flawed application of procedures" rather than individual errors or "recklessness".
The information given here has been extracted from Wikipedia. For more see: Royal Anglians