Hollesley: Friends pay glowing tributes to ‘inspirational’ soldier killed in car crash
HOLLESLEY: Grieving friends of a soldier killed in a car crash in Suffolk last night paid glowing tribute to a “true gentleman”.
Captain Alan Crompton, 27, was stationed at Rock Barracks, near Woodbridge.
He was driving a silver Audi at around 10am on Saturday when it collided with a tree on an unclassified road about a quarter of a mile from Hollesley.
Emergency services attended but Capt Crompton, understood to originally have been from Yorkshire, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Last night a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said they were liaising with his family and were expecting to pay further tribute later today.
Capt Crompton studied biomedicine at Newcastle University, where he started in September 2003, and yesterday some of his friends contacted the Evening Star to pay their respects.
Nimesh Patel, 32, who had known Capt Crompton for eight years, said: “Alan was an absolutely fantastic person and one of my best mates. He was the most generous person ever and very intelligent.
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“He was very warm and incredibly considerate, he would always go out of his way to help out other people.
“He was so caring and had so much to give. The world is an emptier place without him.”
Mr Patel, who lived in halls with Capt Crompton at university, continued: “When he smiled the whole room lit up. He was a superb person and I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone like him again.”
Christian King, 25, who also went to university with Capt Crompton, said: “He was a determined guy. Whatever he did in his life he gave 100%.
“He always wanted to go into the Army - that was something that he thought was his calling, his duty.
“He was very charismatic and an inspirational person. A natural leader and a true gentleman in the genuine sense of the word. They’re just some of his very many assets that made him such a great officer in the Army. He had a natural warmth that drew people in.”
The accident on Saturday closed the road for five and a half hours.
Police would still like to hear from anyone who witnessed the collision or who may have seen the silver Audi before the accident.
Anyone with information should call Suffolk Constabulary’s Serious Collision Investigation Team on 01473 613500.
