UP to 500 people turned out in West Oxfordshire and Oxford yesterday to pay their respects to Lance Corporal James Brynin, the 22-year-old killed in Afghanistan last week.

While some may think that turn-out was small in comparison with previous repatriations, those stood in the city and at the memorial garden, plus those along the A40, were still our communities coming together to pay their respects to this man who gave his life in the service of his country.

It is probably unwise to try to draw a reason why there were fewer people than previously.

It has been more than five months since the last soldier killed in Afghanistan and that has been a reassuringly long and peaceful time in the history of these repatriations.

There are also increasing questions and feelings in some quarters over what we have really achieved in Afghanistan and if it was worth these hundreds of lives lost.

That will ultimately be determined when history is reviewed in the years to come but, with the countdown to Remembrance Sunday about to start, we must keep in mind and pay tribute to the sacrifices of current conflicts as we do the past world wars.

L Cpl Brynin and others who have fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq must never be written off or consigned to a corner of history because their lives were lost in controversial wars.

We salute them but hope that L Cpl Brynin is the last we have to watch drive through the gates of the John Radcliffe Hospital.