My hero husband was a Flashman and a Wodehouse
THE widow of Corporal James Dunsby described him as a ‘delightful, eccentric mix between Flashman, a PG Wodehouse novel, and a Noel Coward play’.
Bryher Dunsby, also told the inquest that her husband, who died two weeks after collapsing on the march, was handsome, charming and ‘good at everything’.
Corporal Dunsby, 31, worked as a military analyst for the MoD and had previously served in Afghanistan with the Household Cavalry and as a medic in the Australian army.
Mrs Dunsby said: ‘James was hard to forget for anybody who had met him. He was incredibly handsome. James was very charming, he was so likeable, James was very popular.
‘He was one of those people who was an exceptional allrounder. He was good at sport, he was highly academic, he was good at everything really.’
She told the hearing she last saw her husband two days before the march – July 11, 2013 – when he s poke about the heatwave.
‘He knew it was going to be getting warmer,’ Mrs Dunsby added. ‘He wasn’t concerned and for James starting off in the Australian Army, they have a zero tolerance for anything to do with heat.
‘He always said to me the importance of water.’
L/Cpl Edward Maher, also 31,
‘He was superbly fit’
was a full-time soldier in the Royal Green Jackets then with the Royal Artillery’s Special Observation Wing before leaving in 2009 to go study a degree at the University of Southamp- ton. He later worked for a string of charities and joined the reserves and had served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Africa.
His father, also called Edward, and from Winchester, said: ‘Although we suspected he was working with Special Forces, we didn’t ask him to confirm this. In his spare time he volunteered with a number of charities, including Help for Heroes.
‘He was superbly fit. One of the last things he did say was …this was one of the things he had been training for all his life.’
L/Cpl Craig Roberts, 24, from St Asaph, North Wales, quit a lucrative job in the City of London to be a reservist. He later worked as a teaching assistant while applying to work in the civil service – and also pursuing his dream of being in the special forces.
His mother Margaret Roberts said she could tell her son’s heart wasn’t in his City job.
‘After several months he told us he wanted to do a tour of duty with the Royal Anglian Regiment.
‘We were concerned about where he might be sent and the danger he might be put in. But it didn’t occur to us to be worried about training.’