IN MEMORIAM

Capt Martin DRIVER (31)
1st battalion,
the royal anglian regiment
MARCH 15 – SELLY OAK

A POPULAR and “utterly decent” officer died in Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital from wounds sustained in an IED blast during a patrol in southern Afghanistan.
Capt Martin Driver was flown back to Britain after being critically wounded in Musa Qaleh but succumbed to his injuries three weeks later.
Having originally served as a Territorial Army soldier with 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, during which time he deployed to Northern Ireland and Iraq, Capt Driver commissioned into 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment in 2006.
The officer deployed on Op Herrick 6 in 2007 before being posted to study Arabic at the Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield and earning his promotion to captain.
The Barnsley-born Serviceman leaves behind fiancee Johanna, his parents and a twin brother, who said in a statement: “His legacy shall never be forgotten. He has touched so many with his love and compassion.”
Remembered by colleagues as quiet and unassuming but immensely talented, Capt Driver was second-in-command of the Viking’s A (Norfolk) Company.
Capt Will Meddings said: “Once you got to know him you could not help but be impressed by his capacity for work, his ability to get to the heart of any problem and the extent to which he cared about those under his command.
“He is irreplaceable in every respect.”