Salisbury will welcome home the 4th Battalion, the Rifles on Monday 7 December, with a parade through the City Centre. Nick Radford, Prospective Lib Dem MP for Salisbury will be joining other Salisbury residents on the streets to welcome them home.

The battalion recently arrived back at their base in Bulford from deployment in Afghanistan. The regiment has lost 24 servicemen this year.

450 soldiers will be on parade through the City Centre, marching with a Civic procession at midday from the Cathedral to the Market Square. Captain Harry Parker, who was severely wounded in Afghanistan this year will present a painting to the City. Shops that are displaying Christmas trees will take them down for the day and use the holders to display flags. 

Nick Radford, Propsective Lib Dem MP for Salisbury has said that he will be attending the parade: 

“I will be in Salisbury City Centre on Monday to support and celebrate our troops homecoming.

“Our thoughts will be with the families of the 24 servicemen who lost their lives in the line of duty. We must never forget that we enjoy the freedoms that we do because of the sacrifice of others.

“Most of us can’t even begin to imagine the conditions our soldiers must be put through on deployment to somewhere like Afghanistan. It must be a huge relief for them, and their families, to get back on British soil.”