British troops attend a sunset flag-lowering and end-of-mission ceremony at Kandahar airfield in 2014
British Royal Marines scramble out of a Chinook helicopter in south-eastern Afghanistan in 2002. All photos: Getty Images
Royal Marines from Arbroath, Scotland patrol south-eastern Afghanistan in 2002
British and US forces fire 105mm artillery rounds at Bagram Airbase in 2002
British Royal Marine Commandos at Bagram Airbase in 2002
British soldiers rest while arriving for their deployment to Camp Bastion in Helmand province in 2006
British troops look for explosives with a sniffer dog in Musa Qala in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in 2006
Cpt Alex Corbet Burcher patrols with Afghan National Army soldiers in 2007 in Sangin Valley, Helmand
A British Army soldier secures a helicopter landing strip during operation Southern Beast in Maywand District in Kandahar in 2008
British soldiers and the Afghan National Police secure the site of a suicide bomb blast in 2009 in Kabul
A sea of crosses bearing pictures of soldiers killed in Afghanistan is placed in the Royal British Legion Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, London in 2012
Then-prime minister David Cameron talks to British soldiers during a visit to Camp Bastion in 2013
The UK national flag is displayed as British troops gather for a Remembrance Sunday service at Kandahar airfield in 2014
British troops attend a sunset flag-lowering and end-of-mission ceremony at Kandahar airfield in 2014
British Royal Marines scramble out of a Chinook helicopter in south-eastern Afghanistan in 2002. All photos: Getty Images
Royal Marines from Arbroath, Scotland patrol south-eastern Afghanistan in 2002
British and US forces fire 105mm artillery rounds at Bagram Airbase in 2002
British Royal Marine Commandos at Bagram Airbase in 2002
British soldiers rest while arriving for their deployment to Camp Bastion in Helmand province in 2006
British troops look for explosives with a sniffer dog in Musa Qala in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in 2006
Cpt Alex Corbet Burcher patrols with Afghan National Army soldiers in 2007 in Sangin Valley, Helmand
A British Army soldier secures a helicopter landing strip during operation Southern Beast in Maywand District in Kandahar in 2008
British soldiers and the Afghan National Police secure the site of a suicide bomb blast in 2009 in Kabul
A sea of crosses bearing pictures of soldiers killed in Afghanistan is placed in the Royal British Legion Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, London in 2012
Then-prime minister David Cameron talks to British soldiers during a visit to Camp Bastion in 2013
The UK national flag is displayed as British troops gather for a Remembrance Sunday service at Kandahar airfield in 2014
British troops attend a sunset flag-lowering and end-of-mission ceremony at Kandahar airfield in 2014
