Luke Morrison, a former soldier in Afghanistan, believes his injuries and efforts were not wasted

A former soldier severely injured while serving in Afghanistan believes British efforts were not wasted, despite the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

Luke Morrison, 33, was serving with the elite Parachute Regiment in 2011 when an improvised explosive device that had gone undetected detonated under his left knee.

He had been kneeling to provide machine gun cover for engineers clearing the devices.

Luke, who lives in Stamford, said: “There are going to be a lot of different views on what’s just happened in Afghanistan.

“Quite a few people who served will be suffering because of this. They’ll be feeling frustrated and angry, thinking about their time out there and they will debate whether or not it was worth it.

“But for me, we did what we had to do. We were there to look after local people and we knew we could change a lot of lives for the better.

“I feel upset for the Afghan people. They had a taste of what life could be like and now that is being taken away.”

He added that the sheer desperation of many Afghans to escape the Taliban regime was demonstrated by scenes of people crowding into military aircraft at Kabul airport this week.

“While serving in Afghanistan we made friends with local people and it was clear all they wanted was to live peaceful lives. They didn’t want the Taliban coming in and forcing their views on them.

“One little girl, who was aged about four, spoke to me through an interpreter and said she wanted to go to school.

“They had schools, and they have had that taken away from them.

“If people ask whether being in Afghanistan was worth it, I’d say we were fighting for these people, and we were fighting side by side with them.”

As a result, Luke says he would welcome Afghans escaping their country “with open arms, so long as they are peaceful people”.

Luke believes going into Afghanistan in the first place was both “the right and the wrong thing to do”.

He feels the two decades of US and British military intervention provided people with a different view, which might give them the will and conviction to fight the Taliban.

But he is also aware of the historical context - that the British Empire was defeated by the Afghans in the 1800s, and Russia’s Red Army left in 1989 following a difficult decade of occupation.

Luke was medically discharged from the British Army following the loss of the lower part of his left leg.

Following rehabilitation he became a physical training instructor, travelled the world, and has completed diverse skills training, including welding and skydiving. Most recently he has taken on close protection training to become a qualified bodyguard.