A YOUNG Army major based with the SAS in Hereford who was about to be awarded the Military Cross has been killed in a road accident in Iraq.

Major James Stenner, aged 30, died in Baghdad in the early hours of New Year's Day when a jeep in which he was travelling crashed in to security bollards.

His SAS colleague Sergeant Norman Patterson, from Staffordshire, was also killed in the crash. Both were based at the regiment's Credenhill HQ.

After the accident it was revealed that Major Stenner, known to all his friends as Jimmy, was in line to be awarded the Military Cross.

It was being given for gallantry at the start of the war in Iraq last March and is understood to be one of six MCs going to SAS soldiers.

Such an exceptional number of high awards for one of the smallest regiments in the country is a tribute to the extent of their courage in secret missions, usually behind enemy lines.

At the time of Major Stenner's death, the awards had not been announced officially and no medals had been presented.

The news of the fatal crash came as a great shock to his colleagues and to the wider community in Herefordshire, where he lived.

He had been a pupil at Hereford Cathedral School for more than seven years, later marrying former classmate Sarah Scott.

The couple had recently bought a new home in the city and were expecting a baby this year.

Teachers at the Cathedral School described Major Stenner as an exceptional pupil and a man with an outstanding Army career ahead of him.

THE family of Major Stenner has asked for his funeral to be private.

But a full SAS funeral is expected for Sgt Patterson at St Martin's Church in Hereford. A member of the Cheshire Regiment, he had been with the SAS in Hereford for a year.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence confirmed 'with regret' the deaths of both men.

They happened when their vehicle collided with concrete bollards inside the US controlled 'green zone', which had been erected around military bases inside the zone to protect them from attack. It was described as a 'straight forward accident' and not related to hostile activity.

An inquest in to the circumstances of the accident will take place in Hereford at a later date.