Honour awarded to family of soldier killed in Troubles

Trooper Anthony Thornett, of the Royal Horse Guards/Dragoons, was shot along with a fellow soldier as their Saracen pulled into Andersontown RUC Station in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 5 1979. He was aged 20.

Trooper Thornett, from Coventry, a former Sidney Stringer School pupil, was laid to rest at London Road Cemetery in the city.

At a ceremony held at the Judges’ House in Warwick last Thursday, the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Martin Dunne, presented the Elizabeth Cross and Memorial Scroll to his mother Mavis and additional scrolls to his sister Tracey Smedley and brother Carl Thornett.

The Elizabeth Cross is a commemorative emblem given to the recognised next of kin of members of the British Armed Forces killed in action or as a result of a terrorist attack after the Second World War. It bears the name of the current British monarch, Elizabeth II.