Soldiers who have returned from a series of demanding overseas operations today braved the British summer to say ‘thank you’ to families and loved ones.

Personnel of the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, are back home in Lancashire after six months of deployments across three continents. Relatives were invited to Weeton Barracks near Blackpool to cheer them home but the weather failed to live up to the celebratory mood and the parade took place in torrential rain.

Several centimeters fell within the space of ten minutes and families huddled for cover under tents and umbrellas. But that wasn’t an option for the 250 soldiers of the battalion’s Arroyo, Arnhem, Blenheim, Chindit and Dettingen Companies who had been marched on to the barracks’ parade square just moments before the heavens opened.

Since December, the battalion, which recruits from across the North West of England, has sent soldiers on operations to the Falkland Islands, UN peacekeeping duties in Cyprus and most recently to Iraq where they assisted in the training of local forces. Last week saw the battalion participate in freedom parades in Lancaster, Blackpool, Appleby and Chorley.

Lieutenant Colonel Rob Singleton, the commanding officer of 2 LANCS, said: “We want to ensure our soldiers’ families are happy whenever we go on operations overseas. So today has been a fantastic opportunity to say thank you to them. It’s great that so many were able to come here today and see us come home – despite the weather! It was very different to the 50°C temperatures we had in Iraq, but what we saw today, is that it doesn’t matter what the conditions are like, my soldiers will stay absolutely rock steady. I’m very proud of them, they’re amazing people.”

Kingsman Gavin White, from Padiham in Lancashire, has just returned from serving in Iraq. He said: “We had good living conditions on the deployment and got on with the job but it’s good to be back home again.”

His mum and dad, Paul and Steph, were there to see the parade. Paul said: “It’s nice to be here, we’re very proud of them all. I really enjoy watching the parades I used to be in the Territorial Army, as it was then, so drill is one of the things I like to see the they were very good today in spite of the weather.”