Britain's leading Roman Catholic army chaplain will be buried tomorrow with full military honours in his home town of Hartlepool.

Monsignor Kevin Vasey died on Monday (March 4) aged 52 after an illness.

He was born in Hartlepool, the third son of a fireman, on April 8, 1949 and was brought up in the town before attending St Mary's College in Middlesbrough.

He studied for the priesthood at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, near Durham, before being ordained in 1973 for the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and working as an assistant priest at St Mary's Cathedral in Newcastle.

In 1976 he was appointed a chaplain to the Royal Army Medical Corps and he transferred to the regular army in 1979. Mgr Vasey's work took him to Germany, Cyprus and Northern Ireland, where his involvement in the peace process earned him an OBE.

In 1996 he was nominated the Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain in the army and made a Vicar General of the Diocese of HM Forces. In the same year Pope John Paul II nominated him Prelate of the Papal Household with the title Monsignor.

He was appointed a Queen's Honorary Chaplain in 1999 - the first such appointment of a Catholic priest in the British Army.

Father Tim Forbes Turner, senior Roman Catholic chaplain at Catterick Garrison, said: "He was loyal to his roots. He died at his mother Edna's home in Hartlepool and he chose to be buried in the town. He was a good friend to me and a warm-hearted, generous spirited man."

The funeral will take place at 11am at the St John Vianney Catholic Church, King Oswy Drive, Hartlepool.