Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, grew up with his parents and brother in a three-bedroomed semi overlooking the River Tyne on a council estate in Throckley, Newcastle.

Known to his neighbours as a quiet, shy, young man who was small for his age, he joined the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers when he left school aged 16.

His aunt, who refused to give her name, said: "Mark is the most lovely, quiet lad you could ever wish to meet.

"He was never the type to go out drinking or causing a fuss. He was under his father's thumb and never put a foot wrong.

"The two of them would spend all their time sitting on the front drive of the house fixing up cars. If Mark didn't have one, then Graham would."

Mark's father, Graham Cooley, was a security company engineer who had installed burglar alarms on many of the neighbours' homes.

His aunt said: "Mark was very like his dad and was hurt when his parents split up years ago.

"After that, we saw very little of Mark but he got his head down and he was doing very well in the Army.

"All he ever got were good reports. He was very proud to be a soldier."

Mark's mother, Joyce, who was too upset to speak, lives at the family home with his paternal grandmother Pauline Cargill.

He is a former pupil of Newcastle's Walbottle Campus school.