Just weeks before he was killed by Isis militants in Syria, the former British soldier wrote to a friend that he hoped his mum might be "a bit proud" of her son. Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, a former Royal Marine from Barnsley in North Yorkshire, is believed to have died from a mortar wound while fighting Islamic State militants in the frontline village of Tek Khuzela, Syria, on Monday. In the last message sent by Mr Scurfield, after his parents had been informed by the British Army he had travelled to Syria and was fighting alongside the Kurdish forces, he writes: "I think she's [his mum] taken it pretty well, I might even think she's a bit proud." His family have paid tribute to their son, writing in a statement: "His flame might have burned briefly but it burned brightly with love, courage, conviction and honour."
