What a terrible waste – but they died fighting for a noble cause

IT WAS about 7pm when the e-mail arrived from the Ministry of Defence. The message contained three photo attachments. I opened each in turn. From the third, marked "Private Charles David Murray", a bright smiling face, barely believable in its youthfulness, beamed out.

In the modern world, this is how Britain learns about its war dead.

The following morning, the faces of Pte Murray, a 19-year-old born in Dumfries, and two colleagues – Private Daniel Gamble, 22, and Private Nathan Cuthbertson, 19 – dominated news...