22nd November 2010. Suzanne Blanchard follows the coffin of her husband, Sapper William Blanchard, out of the Anglican Cathedral in Portsmouth after his funeral. Friends and family packed Portsmouth Cathedral for the funeral of Sapper William Blanchard. The 39-year-old, from Gosport, was shot in a gunfight as he tried to disarm a bomb in the Nahr-e Saraj North District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Formerly from Warsash, many in Hampshire will remember him most for his work as a leader with the Sea Scouts. Earlier this month friends from his branch were among the crowds who travelled to Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, to pay their respects when his body was repatriated. His widow Suzanne was joined by children Tom and Lucy Rees-Blancahrd. Colleagues have described him as “a true gentleman, a giant of a man and an outstanding human being” who was “one of the best.”
