The heartbroken sister of a soldier killed in a rocket attack in Iraq is calling on the nation today to remember all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

As Brodie Gillon paid her respects on last year’s Remembrance Sunday at the cenotaph in her home town of Ayr, her family say her actions that day beautifully sum her up.

One minute the army medic, a reservist with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry, was standing proudly in her full uniform as part of a military guard of honour.

The next, she was dashing to the aid of an elderly man who had taken ill during the two-minute silence and collapsed.

Twelve months on, Brodie’s name is now listed on the country’s roll of honour.

Brodie, 26, died alongside two US soldiers after a deadly rocket attack by Iranian militia on the coalition base in the north of Baghdad.

The 26-year-old was killed alongside two US soldiers on March 11 after a deadly rocket attack by Iranian militia on the coalition base in the north of Baghdad.

As her family struggle to come to terms with her death, they have asked the nation to remember Brodie this Armistice Day.

Her sister Fern Gillon, 29, said: “This time last year Brodie was honouring those who were killed serving their country.

“Now it’s Brodie who’s being remembered. Brodie was so caring, so loving. She was so full of life, so energetic.

“When I sit with tears rolling down my face, I can almost hear her telling me to stop getting upset – to pull myself together. But her death still feels so raw.

“Remembrance Day always meant so much to Brodie. It feels very different for us this year.”

Brodie, a sport therapist who ran her own successful business, joined the army reserves in 2015 and was deployed to the Camp Taji base in Iraq in December last year.

Brodie's body was returned home on March 19.

She had volunteered to join the Irish Guards Battle Group as part of Operation Shader, a non-combat mission to train Iraqi troops how to fight and save lives.

She died after more than a dozen rockets were fired into the base. Several other coalition troops were injured in the attack.

Brodie was the first British female soldier to be killed as part of the ongoing operation.

Fern, who was very close to her younger sister, said: “Brodie left for Iraq on her 26th birthday.

Brodie and her mother Linda.

“Looking back now, I think we should’ve been more worried. We were naive to think things out there had settled down and that she wouldn’t be in harm’s way.

“We’ve spoken to guys in her unit who’ve said they joked with her that she was only going out there for a sun tan. She wasn’t worried at all. She’d previously been deployed to Kenya and had loved it. She enjoyed the camaraderie and banter.

“Last summer she spent time at Balmoral serving with the Balmoral Balaclava Company and even met the Queen. She met her in the stables and they spoke about the horses.

“Brodie saw being in the Army as a great opportunity to see places and do things she would never normally get the chance to do – and she loved it.”

Brodie celebrated Christmas in Iraq with her fellow soldiers, enjoying Christmas dinner in the mess while wearing a Lewis Capaldi-tree Christmas jumper.

As she settled into camp life, the young medic spent her days caring for any sick and injured colleagues on the base and helped to train Iraqi soldiers in life-saving medical skills.

Fern, who lives in Glasgow, said: “We’d speak to Brodie every day.Her posting was to last six months but she was due home for a week’s leave just a few days after she died.

“We’d been making so many plans about what we would do – she was going to get her nails done, go for drinks in Glasgow, we had booked a spa.

“But it didn’t work out that way. On the morning of the attack, she sent me a photo she had taken coming out of the gym. The sun had come up but the moon was still in the sky too. She was happy. Things were normal.”

Brodie (left) with her sister, Fern.

The family, including Brodie’s mum Linda, 61, and dad Josie, 59, know few details about the deadly attack.

Fern said: “I was at my mum’s and the first we knew was when two officers arrived at the door. It was late at night – we’d both just gone to bed. They said there had been an attack, a fatality, and Brodie had died.

“I remember my mum saying, ‘No, no, no – Brodie’s a medic. She helps people. She’s not in the line of fire.’

“But it was Brodie. I had to phone my dad and break the news to him his daughter was dead.”

Brodie’s body was flown back to the UK where a repatriation ceremony was held at the RAF base at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.

A funeral with full military honours had been planned to take place in Ayr but, as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country, the national lockdown was announced.

Fern said: “The repatriation ceremony at Brize Norton was very emotional but it felt like what Brodie deserved and we were so glad it happened because everything else had to be pulled at the last minute.

“We went from having a big military funeral with a piper, a bugler and a military burial party to there just being 12 of us at her graveside – although on the way to the funeral so many people lined the streets, which meant such a lot to us all.”

Nine months on, her family say continuing coronavirus restrictions have stopped them holding a memorial service for her and prevented a military ceremony where she would have been awarded posthumous medals.

As no public ceremonies can be held at war memorials across the country, the family plan to mark Remembrance Sunday today privately at Brodie’s grave.

Her military headstone reads: “Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon. Royal Army Medical Corps. Kind heart, fierce mind, brave spirit.”

Fern said: “Brodie lived every minute of life to the full and said yes to every opportunity that came along.

“It means so much to us that people take the time to think about Brodie this Remembrance Day but that they remember too all those who lost their lives in different conflicts.

“For Brodie, Remembrance Day was about more than just remembering those who had died but respecting the contribution of everyone who served their country.

“She volunteered for SSAFA, the armed forces charity, and she did work for Combat Stress. She remembered the dead but did a lot for veterans too.

“We are so deeply proud of her.”