A FIVE-GUN salute was sounded at the funeral of a young Redcar soldier who died while back in the North to staff Green Goddesses during the firefighters' strike.
Christopher Horvath, 20, died in a car crash after completing firefighting duty in Middlesbrough. More than 300 people attended his funeral on Saturday. Pall-bearers from his squadron, The Light Dragoons, carried his coffin.
His stepfather Shaun Flynn said: "It was so emotional, but the military did us proud. It's just a terrible waste of a young lad who had his whole life and his whole career in front of him. He was a home-loving young man and his mother is just devastated."
Trooper Horvath's mother, Val Smith, was presented with his Army hat and belt after the service at St Peter's, Redcar. As well as his mother and stepfather, Tpr Horvath, a former pupil of Bydales School, Marske, leaves his father, also Christopher, of Coulby Newham, and sister Samantha, 17.
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