Tunisia Victims' Hearses Cross Putney Bridge


Country will observe a minute's silence on Friday

The first bodies of the thirty British tourists shot dead in the Tunisia beach attack have arrived back in the UK and were driven in a convoy of eight hearses from Brize Norton to the Coroner's Office in Fulham over Putney Bridge. Eight coffins had flown in from Tunis on a RAF C17 and transferred with military precision to the waiting hearses.

The bodies on the flight to Brize Norton, were those of family members Adrian Evans, Charles (known as Patrick) Evans and Joel Richards, plus Carly Lovett, Stephen Mellor, John Stollery, and husband and wife Denis and Elaine Thwaites.

As with the earlier repatriations, the victims' coffins were carried from RAF Brize Norton in a convoy of hearses to West London Coroner's Office in Bagley's Lane in Fulham.

Two more flights will bring the remaining dead home on Friday and Saturday and one minute's silence in their honour will held at noon on Friday, July 3 - one week after the attack by gunman Seifeddine Rezgui.

Matches at Wimbledon will start later to allow players, spectators and staff to take part.

The first inquests into the Tunisia deaths were due to be opened at West London Coroner's Court on Thursday afternoon, but were delayed until Friday. Further inquests are due to be opened at the court on Saturday and Sunday by Senior Coroner Chinyere Inyama.

Janet Stocker, who was 63 and lived in Crawley, West Sussex was on holiday with her husband John, 74, when they were killed on the beach near Sousse.

Mrs Stocker, was born and raised with her two brothers in Fulham, while her husband was a retired printer who grew up in Peckham.

The couple had five children and ten children, and the family said in a statement: 'Mum and dad were the happiest, most loving couple who enjoyed life's simple pleasures as well as the pleasures and love of their extensive family and their many friends, but most of all they were still very much in love with each other.

'They were both young at heart and enjoyed all that life could offer, and especially enjoyed travelling to new places, exploring and appreciating local cultures, and they died together doing what they enjoyed most; sunbathing side by side.

'They made a huge impact on our lives, and touched the hearts of so many people and they will both be sorely missed and never forgotten by the family and all that knew and loved them for all the reasons that made them so special as a couple, and as the two most honest and genuine people that they were.'

The Foreign office has confirmed that twenty nine of the thirty eight dead are British and they believe that one body as yet unidentified is also British.


July 3, 2015