'I love the Black Watch bagpipe music, but it makes me cry when I hear it'

Published on Saturday 29 December 2007 20:53

THE call came at 4.30am. Carol Paterson opened the door to two men who said her son was dead, killed in a bomb attack while on patrol in Basra. At first, Carol thought she was dreaming. Then she prayed over and over again that it wasn't true.

Six months on, Carol is dreading the New Year her son will never see. She locks herself away and listens to her favourite music.

"I love the Black Watch bagpipe music, but it makes me cry when I hear it," she said. "I focus on the music, on that and keeping the house and the garden nice.

"I planted a rose in the garden there for Scott, and it was beautiful. It came out as orange roses."

Private Scott Kennedy, Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was 20 when he died, yet another coalition soldier killed by a roadside bomb. Private James Kerr, also 20, from Cowdenbeath, and Corporal Paul Joszko, 28, from Mountain Ash, Wales, died in the same attack last June.

The incident was the deadliest in a year in Iraq which saw the deaths of more than 40 other UK troops. The combined death toll for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 recently passed 250. Many military families are dreading the midnight bells.

Carol remembers the last time she spoke to her son, a few weeks before he died. "It was in Kuwait, just before he went into Iraq," she said. "It lasted 40 minutes. He was more bothered about the heat than about anything else. I was telling him to make sure that he was drinking plenty of water, and he said he would."

Carol is in her 50s, slim, with short, greying hair. She works as a lollipop lady and has been involved for years in helping to run local youth organisations. Her two-storey house in Oakley, near Dunfermline, is neat with a TV in one corner and a computer in the other. Despite her tragic loss, she managed to put up a few, modest Christmas decorations.

"Since what happened, the whole Christmas and New Year hasn't really sunk in," she said.

"We always used to love Christmas and this time of year, but that's changed for me. I'm not looking forward to the New Year. In fact my mother died on the December 31 of last year, so there's that too. There's none of us in the family contemplating anything for the New Year."

Scott, the youngest of three brothers, came from a family with a forces tradition. Both of his grandfathers had been in the army and Scott decided early he would follow in their footsteps.

Carol said: "It wasn't a surprise at all when he said that he was heading into the army. It had always been there. He was always interested in that and he didn't like school. He couldn't wait to leave school and join the army. He was clever, but he didn't like school at all.

"He would watch all the shows on Sky and the Discovery Channel about it. He loved his fitness. He always liked jogging; rain or snow, he always did it. And then he was working on his exercises in the house, he was doing these chin-ups, and at first he couldn't even do one, but then he persevered and worked on it.

"I have never seen a man who could iron or polish shoes like he could. Even before he was in the army. And his ironing, I remember him ironing his brother's trousers, and everyone was commenting about the beautiful crease he put in them."

Alongside the fitness and discipline, Carol said her son had a kind side to his character. "He was very close friends with a blind boy who lives nearby," she said. "Scott was always helping him with things. They had exactly the same sense of humour, they loved the funny DVDs, especially Lee Evans and Peter Kay. You would hear their laughter all over the house.

"There was nothing he wouldn't do. He would help around the house and do everything without being asked. He was very kind. That's the way I brought him up."

One of Carol's favourite memories was at the infantry training base at Catterick, North Yorkshire. "I sat right at the front and saw him on parade," she said. "It was a wonderful day. I was so proud of him. He was very proud of being in the army. He would get in his combats and practise drill with a brush."

She added: "His nickname was Casper. That came from one of these weekends where they could go away with the Black Watch. When they were doing their practice in an empty building, they flung a bag of flour in and Scott was covered in it and he came out all white. White as a ghost, just like the cartoon character.

"I always said he was my special one, because he had done something none of the others had done: he had gone into the army and decided to do something."

Scott joined the army at a time when it was almost certain he would become an active participant in the war on terror. So when Carol heard he was going to Iraq, she wasn't shocked. "Was I worried? Like everything else, he was big and he knew what he wanted to do. I wouldn't have told him what to do."

She added: "We talked a lot on the phone. He wasn't a letter writer. I sent packets of wipes to help him cool down out there. He said that he was very well looked after. He was such a character, he was even learning Japanese because of interest in martial arts. He was a big Bruce Lee fan."

Carol returns to her last conversation with Scott, on a phone line to Kuwait. "When we were speaking, he was in good form. He was very, very happy. We had a great blether. He kept saying to me: 'Don't worry mum, don't worry mum. I'll be fine. All the guys are here and we're looking after each other.'

"And he said to me during that phone call: 'If you don't hear from me, mum, don't worry. It's because I'm busy.'"

Scott was indeed busy in his final hours on the morning of Thursday, June 28. He was on a resupply mission to the British base at Basra Palace. He and his colleagues left the relative safety of their Warrior armoured fighting vehicle to carry out a routine check of the ground ahead and were caught by the blast from a roadside bomb.

Carol will never forget the moment the two men from the army knocked on her door. "I was in my bed. I was woken up at half past four in the morning," she said. "I thought I was dreaming. At first I couldn't believe it was happening, then I realised that it was all real and it was happening. I kept hoping and praying that it wasn't true, that it wasn't really happening."

Scott returned home in a closed coffin. A song by Joe Longthorne – one of Carol's favourite artists – was played at his funeral.

She said: "I have been amazed about the support from everyone. The cards, from all over. I got cards from England, from families who had been in similar situations.

"A lot of soldiers wrote to me, very nice letters. I haven't even read them all, but one day, when I'm stronger, I'll start reading them again. I received flowers from Prince Charles, a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

"I even received letters from MPs, including from Gordon Brown, from the hospital. Everyone has been so good to me. Quite a few of the soldiers have come to see me and gone to lay flowers on his grave."

Understandably, other bereaved parents have railed against the politicians who sent their children to Iraq. "There's no point," said Carol. "It can't bring anyone back. I don't watch the news from Iraq. There are just too many sad things which I see. When I hear of things I feel sad for the families, I remember how they were for me.

"Other families, who haven't lost people in Iraq should be very grateful for what they have got. I would do anything to have what they have got. I was a mum who dedicated myself to my boys. I was a mother who did everything for my boys."

In memorium: those who gave their lives in 2007

IRAQ

&#149 Guardsman Stephen Ferguson, 31, of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, from Lanarkshire.

&#149 Two un-named SAS soldiers were killed when an RAF Puma helicopter crashed in November.

&#149 Lance Corporal Sarah Holmes, 26, from 29 Postal Courier and Movement Regiment and attached to 3 Logistic Support Regiment, from Oxfordshire.

&#149 Sergeant Mark Stansfield, 32, serving with 32 Close Support Squadron, UK Logistic Battalion, from Oxfordshire.

&#149 Sergeant Eddie Collins from the Parachute Regiment.

&#149 Lance Sergeant Chris Casey, 27, from London and Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath, 22, from Essex, both serving with the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards.

&#149 Leading Aircraftman Martin Beard, 20, of No 1 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment, from Nottinghamshire.

&#149 Private Craig Barber, 20, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh.

&#149 Corporal Steve Edwards, 35, of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, from Northampton.

&#149 Lance Corporal Timothy Darren Flowers, 25, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, from Northern Ireland.

&#149 Senior Aircraftsman, Matthew Caulwell, 22, of Birmingham, Senior Aircraftsman, Christopher Dunsmore, 29, from Leicester and Senior Aircraftsman, Peter McFerran, 24, of North Wales, all of the RAF.

&#149 Corporal Christopher Read, 22, of 158 Provost Company, 3rd Regiment Royal Military Police, from Dorset.

&#149 Lance Corporal Ryan Francis, 23, of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh, from Wales.

&#149 Rifleman Edward Vakabua, 23, from 4th Battalion The Rifles, from Fiji.

&#149 Corporal Paul Joszko, 28, of Wales, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh (The Royal Regiment of Wales), Private Scott Kennedy, 20, of Dunfermline, and Private James Kerr, 20, aged 20 from Cowdenbeath, both of the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

&#149 Corporal John Rigby, 24, of the 4th Battalion The Rifles, aged 24, from Sussex.

&#149 Major Paul Harding, 48, of the 4th Battalion The Rifles, from Winchester

&#149 Lance Corporal James Cartwright, 21, of Badger Squadron, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, from London.

&#149 Corporal Rodney Wilson, 30, from 4th Battalion The Rifles. Born in Germany.

&#149 Corporal Jeremy Brookes, 28, of the 4th Battalion The Rifles, from Birmingham.

&#149 Private Kevin Thompson, 21, of the Royal Logistic Corps, from Lancaster.

&#149 Major Nick Bateson, 49, of the Royal Corps of Signals.

&#149 Rifleman Paul Donnachie, 18, of the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, from Reading.

&#149 Kingsman Alan Joseph Jones, 20, from 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, from Liverpool.

&#149 Corporal Ben Leaning, 24, from Scunthorpe and Trooper Kristen Turton, 27, of Grimsby, both of the Queen's Royal Lancers.

&#149 Colour Sergeant Mark Powell, 37, from south Wales, of the Parachute Regiment, and Sergeant Mark J McLaren, 27, of Northumberland, serving with the RAF.

&#149 Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer, 24, from Yeovil and attached to the 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, Corporal Kris O'Neill, 27, from Yorkshire and serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Private Eleanor Dlugosz, 19, from Southampton of the Royal Army Medical Corps and Kingsman Adam James Smith, 19, from the Isle of Man and serving with of the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

&#149 Rifleman Aaron Lincoln, 18, of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, from Durham.

&#149 Kingsman Danny Wilson, 28, of the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, from Cumbria.

&#149 Private Jonathon Dany Wysoczan, 21, of the First Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment, from Staffordshire.

&#149 Rifleman Daniel Lee Coffey, 21, of C Company, Second Battalion The Rifles.

&#149 Private Luke Daniel Simpson, 21, of the 1st Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment.

&#149 Second Lieutenant Jonathan Bracho-Cooke, 24, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, from Sussex.

&#149 Private Michael Tench, 18, of A Company, 2nd Battalion The Light Infantry, from Sunderland.

&#149 Kingsman Alexander William Green, 21, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, from Cheshire.

&#149 Sergeant Wayne Rees, 36, of The Queen's Royal Lancers from Nottingham.

AFGHANISTAN

Sergeant Lee Johnson, 33, of 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards), from Stockton.

&#149 Trooper Jack Sadler, 21, of The Honourable Artillery Company, from Devon.

&#149 Captain John McDermid, 43, of The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, from Glasgow.

&#149 Lance Corporal Jake Alderton, 22, of 36 Engineer Regiment, from London.

&#149 Major Alexis Roberts, 32, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles (serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles), from Kent.

&#149 Colour Sergeant Phillip Newman, 36, from Coventry of the 4th Battalion The Mercian Regiment, and Private Brian Tunnicliffe, 33, from Ilkeston of the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).

&#149 Corporal Ivano Violino, 29, from 36 Engineer Regiment, from Salford.

&#149 Sergeant Craig Brelsford, 25, of Nottingham, and Private Johan Botha, 25, from South Africa, both from 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).

&#149 Private Damian Wright, 23, of Mansfield, and Private Ben Ford, 18, of Chesterfield, both from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).

&#149 Senior Aircraftman Christopher Bridge, 20, from C flight, 51 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment, from Sheffield.

&#149 Privates Aaron James McClure, 19, from Ipswich, Robert Graham Foster, 19, and John Thrumble, 21, both of Essex, all of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.

&#149 Captain David Hicks, 26, of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, from Surrey.

&#149 Private Tony Rawson, 27, of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, from Essex.

&#149 Lance Corporal Michael Jones, 26, of the Royal Marines, from Yorkshire.

&#149 Sergeant Barry Keen, 34, of 14 Signal Regiment, from Gateshead.

&#149 Guardsman David Atherton, 25, of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, from Manchester.

&#149 Lance Corporal Alex Hawkins, 22, of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, from Norfolk.

&#149 Guardsman Daryl Hickey, 27, of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, from Birmingham.

&#149 Sergeant Dave Wilkinson, 33, of 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, from Ashford, Kent.

&#149 Captain Sean Dolan, 40, of the 1st Battalion, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, from the West Midlands.

&#149 Drummer Thomas Wright, 21, of 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, from Derbyshire.

&#149 Guardsman Neil 'Tony' Downes, 20, from Manchester.

&#149 Lance Corporal Paul 'Sandy' Sandford, 23, of 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, from Nottingham.

&#149 Corporal Mike Gilyeat, 28, from the Royal Military Police. Born in Germany.

&#149 Corporal Darren Bonner, 31, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, from Norfolk.

&#149 Guardsman Daniel Probyn, 22, of the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards, from Tipton, Staffordshire.

&#149 Lance Corporal George Russell Davey, 23, of the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, from Suffolk.

&#149 Guardsman Simon Davison, 22, of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

&#149 Private Chris Gray, 19, of A Company, 1st Battalion, from Leicestershire.

&#149 Warrant Officer Class 2 Michael 'Mick' Smith of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, from Liverpool.

&#149 Marine Benjamin Reddy, 22, of 42 Commando Royal Marines, from Ascot.

&#149 Lance Bombardier Ross Clark, 25, of Zimbabwe, and Lance Bombardier Liam McLaughlin, 22, from Lancashire, both of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery.

&#149 Marine Scott Summers, 23, of 42 Commando Royal Marines, from Sussex.

&#149 Marine Jonathan Holland, 23, of 45 Commando, from Lancashire.

&#149 Lance Corporal Mathew Ford, 30, of 45 Commando Royal Marines, from Immingham.

&#149 Marine Thomas Curry, 21, of 42 Commando, from London.