[A] soldier from Carlisle will be among those parading in Appleby on Tuesday (18th July) to mark his unit’s return home from overseas duties.
Kingsman Tyrone Blakey, 20, has been in the Army for four years. He serves with the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, which recruits from across the North West of England.
The Infantry battalion, also known as 2 LANCS, is based at Weeton Barracks near Blackpool, and is one in which personnel fight on foot. During the last six months its soldiers have been deployed on operations in the Falkland Islands, Cyprus and most recently Iraq
Tyrone said: “I’ve travelled to Kenya and Belize, Central America, since I’ve been in the Army, and I’ve just come back from six months in Iraq. It went really well, we were protecting our engineers as they trained the Iraqi forces. We felt the training achieved something important – for example many of the Iraq soldiers learned how to apply basic first aid techniques like applying tourniquet. But I’m glad to be home, I missed the simple things while I was away.”
In 2015 Tyrone was among the 2 LANCS personnel who assisted following the floods which struck his home county, he said: “I was in Carlisle, my home town, I was working near the homes of friends from school who had seen their properties flooded, so it will be nice to return to the county in uniform for a far happier occasion.”
More than 100 personnel will parade through Appleby on Tuesday, 18th July, receiving the Regiment’s freedom of the town and attending a thanksgiving service. It is the second of four parades in one week for the battalion; the other three are Lancaster, Blackpool and Chorley, all organized to mark the soldiers’ return home to the North West from duties across the globe.
