Town and England legend Terry Butcher’s son Christopher, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, died yesterday morning aged 35, the family has announced.
In a Facebook post last night Butcher’s other son, Edward, 32, wrote: "It is with the up most sadness that I regret to say that my brother Christopher Butcher has passed away this morning.
"My older brother was the best brother I can ever of asked for and his death has hit the entire family hard. The family are together and we will release the dates of the funeral in due time.
"I wanted to put this on Facebook to inform all who knew him. We know how greatly he was loved and we’re sorry that we can’t call every person who knew him to tell them.”
In a further post, he added: "Chris you were my hero, you were my best friend and you were someone I would throw myself in the way of a truck for!
"Thank you for everything you ever taught me and I will miss you for the rest of my life but you will never be forgotten!”
Speaking three years ago Terry, 58, said he couldn’t have been prouder of Christopher, who was married and served as a captain with the Royal Artillery before leaving the army in 2015, but said he had found life hard since returning from Afghanistan.
"Unfortunately Chris is not in a good way right now,” he said. "When he told me about going into that compound in Afghanistan, feeling the bullets pinging off his helmet, well..."