A soldier killed in Iraq left his fiancée a heartbreaking letter declaring his undying love.
Gunner Lee Thornton, 22, told close friends that Helen O'Pray, 21, should read the letter only if he died on his second tour of duty there.
He was shot while on patrol near Basra this month and died two days later in a military hospital in Germany with Miss O'Pray, a student, and his parents at his bedside. Yesterday Miss O'Pray, of Sandbach, Cheshire, disclosed the full text of the letter she had hoped she would never have to open.
It began: "I don't know why I am writing this because I really hope that this letter never gets to you, because if it does that means I am dead. It also means I never had time to show you just how much I really did love you."
Gunner Thornton went on to recall the couple's first kiss and how every night in Iraq he had touched the photograph of her on his headboard "so you could look over me as I slept". He went on: "Well, now it is my turn to look over you as you sleep and keep you safe in your dreams. . .
"So, whenever you feel lonely, just close your eyes and I'll be there right by your side. I really did love you with all I had. You were everything to me. Never forget that and never forget I will always be looking over you. I love you, you are my soul mate."
He ended with: "Love always and for ever. Lee."
Gunner Thornton, of Marton, near Blackpool, had been due to marry Miss O'Pray in August 2008.
He was on patrol with the 12th Regiment Royal Artillery when a gunman shot him in the town of Al Qurna on Sept 5. He had volunteered for the mission 24 hours after his best friend, Stephen Wright, a fellow Lancastrian, was killed by a roadside bomb.
Miss O'Pray said: "There are no words that can describe how I felt when I read the letter. I love him so much. He was kind, generous and everything you would want in a man. I miss him dearly and this letter just shows how much I meant to him." Gunner Thornton's mother, Karen, 44, said: "He was our hero, doing the job he loved. We are very proud of him and will never forget him. The Army made him the man he was. He was tough when he went to Iraq first but when he came back he was very much a family man and put his fiancée and us before anyone."
Mrs Thornton was on holiday with her husband, Mick, 41, and their three other children, Ryan, 19, Sean, 15, and Jake, 13, when she received the news that he had been shot.
The family was flown to Germany to join Miss O'Pray at his bedside.
Gunner Thornton will be given a full military funeral at St Paul's Church, Marton, on Monday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/23/nirq23.xml
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