MoD Information

No Wedding Before War

Mon, March 17, 2003

Source: Ananova News

Two British soldiers in Kuwait have been told their wish to get married is unlikely to be granted before war starts.

Two British soldiers in Kuwait have been told their wish to get married is unlikely to be granted before war starts. Lance Corporals Roger Brown and Julie Colbridge have been told there would be weeks of paperwork before their padre would be allowed to marry them in the desert.

The pair had planned to marry next month but their attempts to make the wedding arrangements were thwarted when their regiment was called up to join the UK's 1st Armoured Division in early January.

Since then they have been concerned that they may not be able to marry before Lance Cpl Brown is posted back to the UK for two years.

But a chance comment from a fellow soldier, suggesting that their padre could marry them, has raised the prospect of an unorthodox ceremony.

After discussing their situation with Danny Connolly, padre at 1 General Support Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, the pair are resigned to not achieving their first wish of marrying before conflict begins.

"We needed to speak to the padre to see if a wedding here was feasible," Lance Cpl Brown, 23, from Newborough, Fife, said.

"He has assured us that it is but that it will take about three weeks to sort out the paperwork - which rules out tying the knot before war starts.

"So we will have to wait and see how much time we have between the war ending and my posting back to the UK on May 12.

"Hopefully we will be able to go ahead with our original plan to get married in April. It was only last week that I discovered the possibility of a regimental wedding in theatre existed and the more I have thought about it the more the idea has grown on me."