ROYAL Wootton Bassett has once again become the focal point for the world’s media as the last British soldier leaves Afghanistan for home.

This week, the last British troops were airlifted out of Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, marking the end of the UK’s involvement in the 13-year conflict sparked by the September 11 attacks on New York in 2001.

Between 2007 and 2011, the bodies of some of the 453 soldiers who died serving in the war were repatriated through RAF Lyneham and the nearby town of Wootton Bassett.

During those four and a half years, residents spontaneously lined the streets in silence to mourn and welcome home 355 dead military personnel – a phenomenon that captured imaginations around the country and became an enduring symbol of respect for the lives lost and of modern conflict.

Royal Wootton Bassett town councillor Chris Wannell said: “Wootton Bassett showed their respect for the Armed Services and I am very proud about the fact that Wootton Bassett put respect back into our Armed Services at a time when respect was very low, and we put respect back into our country too.

“That’s what I’m proud of this town for.

“The whole thing was apolitical – it wasn’t about politics, it was about showing respect for the servicemen and women who had died.

“It grew organically, no one person or organisation organised it, individuals and businesses who wanted to show their respect just started doing so.

“We didn’t do it to gain anything either. I just hope we helped to give some comfort to the families and relatives of the men, women, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, parents and children who gave up their lives.”

The withdrawal from Afghanistan comes just a week before a new play exploring the relationship between the Armed Forces and wider society, inspired by the town’s response to the repatriations, opens at Salisbury Playhouse.

Playwright Neil Walker carried out research in the town before writing Do We Do The Right Thing?, which explores how people separated their respect for individual lives from their opinions on the political motivations behind the conflict.

“I found the whole thing quite moving when I saw it on the television,” said Neil.

“Not everyone agreed with the repatriations because of the impact it had on the town and, of course, not everyone agreed about the politics about the conflicts, but they separated that from their respect for the soldiers and this was what was so striking.

“When I got off the bus in Wootton Bassett it was some time after the repatriations had taken place. The greatest thing that struck me was how much of an ordinary market town it was.

“People were just going about their business, and there was nothing to mark out what had happened.”