A WARM welcome home was given to a Malvern naval serviceman who returned from the Iraq war on Wednesday (May 5).

Eddie Cochrane served aboard HMS Edinburgh, which set a naval record during the conflict by spending 126 days at sea without returning to shore or pulling alongside another ship.

During that time, the crew received no mail and were prevented from using mobile phones to contact their families as they would have given their position away. However, food supplies never ran low.

The 40-year-old chief marine engineer had only just moved into his Grafton Road home before Christmas when the call came ordering him to return to his ship immediately.

He was one of 285 servicemen aboard the Type 42 destroyer, which sailed to Cyprus to take part in a show of strength before sailing down the Suez Canal. They were stationed on the Al Fawr peninsula, guarding nearby oil refineries from air attack.

Mr Cochrane's ship was not directly attacked during the conflict, although mines and suicide boats were intercepted before they could do any damage.

"Mines were the main threat when we were out there," he said. "They had fishing boats dumping them over the side."

Mr Cochrane said "friendly" fire from the Americans and negative TV coverage of the war, especially on the BBC, had sapped morale among younger troops.

However, Mr Cochrane said he was now glad to be back with wife Andrea and their five children. He will take a three-week break from service before returning to his ship to carry out maintenance, but is to leave the service in November after 23 years.

During his career he also served aboard nuclear and diesel submarines, minesweepers and destroyers, having joined up after leaving The Chase school.

Mrs Cochrane said she was very pleased to see him return safely. She said media coverage of the war had become too difficult to watch during his time away.