Spending a year or two working as a jackaroo on an Australian sheep station was once a rite of passage for many young Englishmen. Mark Evison was one of them.
In 2001, he came to work on Mungadal Station, a vast merino sheep property at Hay, in southern New South Wales.
Likeable, extremely capable and game for anything, he made a lasting impression. After a year he returned to London and followed family tradition by becoming a soldier.
Dubbed '008' by his comrades, he was a rising star in the Welsh Guards when he was killed in action in 2009 in Afghanistan's remote and dangerous Helmand province.
The 26-year-old Lieutenant died from blood loss three days after being shot - shortly after he had warned the British Army its overstretched forces could not get adequate medical aid to wounded frontline troops.
Events leading to his death were told in an award-winning BBC documentary, The Lost Platoon.
This year, teenager Charlie Depel from Putney, in inner-London, has followed in Lieutenant Evison's jackarooing footsteps through a foundation established in his memory.
Producer: Tim Lee.
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4 окт 2024