A BLACK-TIE dinner will be held later this year, to remember a North-East soldier killed in Iraq.

Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was killed in June 2003, while serving with the Royal Military Police. He was 23.

His family set up the Ben Hyde Memorial Trust three years ago.

The trust’s annual dinner, in memory of L Cpl Hyde and his comrades, will take place on Saturday, June 20, in the Yorkshire Suite of the Golden Lion Hotel, in High Street, Northallerton.

Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon will be the evening’s guest speaker.

L Cpl Hyde’s father, John Hyde, said: "Ben was someone who enjoyed a good night out, and we are sure this is how he and his colleagues would want to be remembered."

The event will include a three-course dinner, disco, entertainment, a raffle and an auction.

Tickets cost £30.

Mr Hyde will be part of a five-strong team of walkers to take on the coast-to-coast challenge in aid of the trust next month.

They will set off from St Bees, in Cumbria, on May 16, and hope to reach Robin Hood’s Bay, on the North Yorkshire Coast, on May 29.

The group is looking for sponsorship.

Mr Hyde said the aim was to raise "as much as possible" for the trust.

For more information, or to offer sponsorship, call John and Sandra Hyde, on 01609-780980.