TRIBUTES were paid in the Commons to four fallen soldiers from the region yesterday in the most heart-rending roll-call since the war in Afghanistan began.

Gordon Brown read out the names of 37 British servicemen who had lost their lives since the last Prime Minister’s questions nearly three months ago.

Among them were Warrant Officer Sean Upton, 35, from Catterick, North Yorkshire, Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, from Easington Colliery, County Durham, Lance Bombardier Matt Hatton, from York, and Acting Corporal Marcin Wojtak, 24, who was based at RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire.

The sombre occasion, which took up more than two minutes and was heard in absolute silence, came ahead of Mr Brown’s announcement that 500 extra troops would be sent to Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister told MPs: “It is a very solemn moment.

It is a day in which we put on record, in the House of Commons, the debt of gratitude to the 37 who have given their lives in Afghanistan.

“Nothing can erase the pain for their families. Nothing can be greater than the pride that we take in their contribution to our country and our sadness at their loss.

“I know that the thoughts and prayers of the whole House are with the families and friends of all these brave men. Their lives live on in the influence that they will have left behind on other people and they will not be forgotten.”

WO Upton, of the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery, lived in Catterick with his wife, Karen, his childhood sweetheart, and their two children, Ewan, ten, and Hollie, seven.

He was killed by an explosion in Helmand province in July, after 19 years in the Army. He was described by his commanding officer as “an exemplary soldier and man”.

Rfn Wild, of the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, had been in the Army for two years when he was killed by an explosion as he and a colleague carried a wounded Matt Hatton to a helicopter landing zone in Sangin, Helmand province, in August.

The Lance Bombardier, whose heartbroken parents said he had never wanted to be anything except a soldier, also died in the incident.

Tony Blair began the practice of reading out the names of fallen soldiers before the weekly head-to-head between the party leaders. Gordon Brown has continued it.

Typically, two or three tributes are paid – not the 37 names read out yesterday – but the long Commons summer recess coincided with the bloodiest period since the mission began in October 2001