Excerpt from the book "Lost Lives"
The first soldier killed by Loyalists, he died in hospital five months after going into a coma when he was injured during a riot on the Newtownards Road on October 5,
He received serious head injuries when his car crashed after he was hit by a brick. Another soldier, with him in the unmarked car, was also injured.
According to an army report on the incident, the soldiers were 'confronted by men in UDA-type uniforms'. The car swerved and crashed into a telephone kiosk on the Newtownards Road near the Dee Street junction, close to the UDA's east Belfast headquarters. The incident happened shortly after midnight. A mob had thrown missiles at the vehicle as the lance-corporal tried to drive through a gap in the crowd. The army said the soldiers were off duty at the time but loyalists told reporters they believed the men were conducting plain-clothes surveillance.
A Welshman, Lance-Corporal Durber, who had been living in Stoke-on-Trent, suffered a fractured skull and never re- gained consciousness before dying in the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich. His widow was awarded £6,500 in com- pensation. In one newspaper report his name was given as 'Leonard Alan Durban' but he appears on the official military list of casualties as Laurence Durber.
Lost Lives victim 778
Excerpt from the book "Lost Lives"
The first soldier killed by Loyalists, he died in hospital five months after going into a coma when he was injured during a riot on the Newtownards Road on October 5,
He received serious head injuries when his car crashed after he was hit by a brick. Another soldier, with him in the unmarked car, was also injured.
According to an army report on the incident, the soldiers were 'confronted by men in UDA-type uniforms'. The car swerved and crashed into a telephone kiosk on the Newtownards Road near the Dee Street junction, close to the UDA's east Belfast headquarters. The incident happened shortly after midnight. A mob had thrown missiles at the vehicle as the lance-corporal tried to drive through a gap in the crowd. The army said the soldiers were off duty at the time but loyalists told reporters they believed the men were conducting plain-clothes surveillance.
A Welshman, Lance-Corporal Durber, who had been living in Stoke-on-Trent, suffered a fractured skull and never re- gained consciousness before dying in the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich. His widow was awarded £6,500 in com- pensation. In one newspaper report his name was given as 'Leonard Alan Durban' but he appears on the official military list of casualties as Laurence Durber.
Lost Lives victim 778
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