She is just one year, nine months old, but last night, little Clodagh Whitehouse was simply dancing for joy, writes Shirley Tart.

She had been told all day that daddy was coming home and she knew exactly what that meant. 

And as Ranger Dominic Whitehouse stepped from the coach bringing the last of the Royal Irish Regiment rangers back to Tern Hill, near Market Drayton, with a squeal and a baby beam, Clodagh toddled across the quad and right into daddy’s arms.

In a warm, pink furry coat and cosy boots against the sharp early evening air, the little girl was swept up into bare, sun tanned arms by a brave dad back from one of the world’s most dangerous hot spots. 

Dominic needed few words as his own smile matched that of his small daughter and a tear fell on the combat gear which he and his colleagues would soon be able to temporarily leave behind. Equally happy wife Orla looked on with delight. She was perhaps more relieved than many of the families waiting for their men’s return from the notorious Helmand province. Because this Afghanistan deployment was Dominic’s second tour of duty in the hot and dusty clime and first time around, he was injured but made a good recovery. 

Orla summed it up when she said simply: “Clodagh has missed her daddy and I am very relieved to see him safely home.” 

While for one courageous soldier, the heat, the dust, the Taliban danger all went away in one tight hug from his little girl.

• On Thursday, October 16, there is a service of thanksgiving at Shrewsbury’s Abbey Church for the regiment, followed by a parade to the Shirehall.