FORMER members of the Parachute Regiment formed a guard of honour at the funeral of an old comrade killed whilst helping rebuild war-torn Iraq.

Those attending the funeral of ex-para Alan Parkin, from Consett, County Durham, filed out of the church to the tune of Cavatina, from The Deer Hunter.

Tears streamed down the faces of relatives of the father-of-three, who died when a bomb blast ripped through his convoy on the road to Baghdad Airport last month.

Former members of the Army's Parachute Regiment stood to attention and formed a guard of honour as the coffin, wrapped in a Union Flag, was taken to Blackhill Cemetery.

Mr Parkin, who spent 23 years in the Army, with tours of duty to Bosnia, the Gulf and Northern Ireland, went to Iraq to work as a bodyguard last summer.

The 44-year-old had been protecting construction workers while they were rebuilding the country.

London-based Aegis Defences Services chief executive, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, said: "Working with Alan was a delight. He had a calm, assured, cheerful demeanour and underlying toughness and a great sense of humour.

"He believed he was doing something worthwhile for a people oppressed by terror, torture and murder for 30 years.

"He was a soldier through and through."

A former pupil of Greencroft Secondary School, in Stanley, he devoted his life to the Army and planned to retire from his present job in two years.

A dedicated family man, Mr Parkin e-mailed home every day and would have celebrated his 22nd wedding anniversary with wife, Zena, next month.

The couple have three children, Sonia, 21, Daniel, 18, and Dean, 15.

The moving service at the Parish Church of Consett opened with music chosen by Mrs Parkin, Because You Love Me, and included a piece selected by his children, I'll Be Missing You.

The Reverend David Cooper paid tribute to the work Mr Parkin did in Iraq.

He said: "Alan was trying to improve the daily lives of people who could not do it for themselves and he risked his life doing that.

"There is no other occupation that demands a person gives everything they possibly can do to it, other than soldiering.

"That marks him out as people who had more humanity and that cared more than most people for others."