A Wandsworth soldier helped lay to rest a fallen First World War company comrade in France last week.

Trooper Toby Russel-Fisher, 28, from Tooting, was a pallbearer at Lieutenant John Pritchard’s burial on St George’s Day, April 23.

Lt Pritchard, from Wandsworth, was attached to 2nd Battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) when he was killed on May 15, 1917, during an attack on a German stronghold.

Tpr Russel-Fisher, who is also attached to the HAC, was present at Tuesday’s ceremony, at which Lt Pritchard received full military honours at the company’s cemetery at Escout-Saint-Mein, near Amiens, northern France.

Earlier that day two unidentified First World War victims from HAC were laid to rest.

Sadly, this was the second time the soldier had been a pallbearer, having already performed the same duty at his grandmother’s funeral last month.

Tpr Russel-Fisher’s father James told the Wandsworth Guardian: “Toby joined the HAC in 2011, thus fulfilling a long-held ambition to serve in the army and follow in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, who was a lifelong soldier.

“It seems fitting that a young man from Wandsworth should honour the sacrifice of another young Wandsworth man, Lt Pritchard, who gave his life at the age of just 31, by bearing the coffin of Lt Pritchard and another, unknown, HAC soldier to their final resting place in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.”

Lt Pritchard’s remains were found in a field near Bullecourt in 2009, about 20 miles from Arras, and he was identified by an engraved silver bracelet and his wallet.