Mr Stout had been looking forward to being reunited with his family at the end of his six-month tour next week.

The SAS reservist's family said: "He was a loving father and devoted husband, a wonderful son and brother and he will be greatly missed by all his family and friends. Our lives will be changed forever by this loss."

He was part of a deployment by 23 SAS which has seen reservists filling gaps left as regular Special Forces are stretched by counter-terrorism commitments at home and operations in Iraq. One former SAS commanding officer said: "This is the biggest deployment in the history of reserve soldiers from UK Special Forces. Each one of them made great personal sacrifices. This is a TA-led operation and one they have performed brilliantly."