Soldier beetle

My daughter (16) went out with the volunteers for the second time today - three hours of clearing bramble from a butterfly glade. I think she preferred the first time when they were surveying dormice. We followed it up with a long walk over Ashdown Forest. Usual buttterflies around and we saw a couple of emperor dragonflies. There seem to be lots of common red soldier beetles around at the moment. I'm not sure why they are called soldier beetles - maybe its the fact that they are very straight or it could be their red coats (although I always think they look more orange than red).