AROUND 6,000 people lined the streets of Monmouth yesterday for the funeral of local soldier Jamie Gunn who died in Afghanistan. MIKE BUCKINGHAM reports.

WITH slow and measured tread the comrades-in-arms of Rifleman Jamie Gunn carried the young Monmouth soldier to his final repose.

With the bleak and parched Afghan landscape as a backdrop, the 21-year-old and his mates Lance -Corporal Paul Upton and Corporal Tom Gadden died when their vehicle tripped a roadside bomb.

It was on a misty day in the Gwent market town that English-born Jamie and his family has made their home that a crowd of six thousand stood in silence for his final homecoming.

More than an hour before Jamie's Union Flag-draped coffin in its hearse and procession of gleaming limousines bearing principal morners appeared over the brow of Monnow Bridge, the crowd had begun to form.

Along Monnow Street the shops which would normally be a-bustle presented closed doors in mute tribute.

Girls still wearing shop uniforms stood by the roadside, and some cried.

Knots of soldiers from the Monmouth-based Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers stood silently at the passing of the coffin upon which Jamie's dress cap and belt and a wreath of red poppies had been laid.

Up Monnow Street, through Agincourt Square and past the Castle with its regimental flag at half-mast the funeral procession went, and following it a surge of people who although they may not have known the young soldier personally wished to show their respect for his sacrifice and perhaps in some small way, share his family's burden of grief.

Royal British Legion standards and those of ex-service organisations of the regiments and corps of the British Army dipped in salute as the coffin was borne into the church.

Civic and military dignitaries including David Davies, MP for Monmouth and officers from the Royal Marines who also lost a comrade on the same day were in attendance. For those packed into the ancient St Mary's parish church, or standing in their ranks outside, the first hymn could hardly have been more appropriate, I Vow to Thee, My Country.

Tributes were read by ministers and regimental officers but it seemed that every breath was held as Jamie's sister, Jessica, stepped up to the lectern.

It was not a long peroration but one suffused with the love of her brother as she said, simply "The blood flowing through my veins, every cell in my body, is connected with him."

Mr Mervyn Gunn, Jamie's father, stood erect as from the lectern he thanked all those, civil and military, who shown support and sympathy.

With his son's flag-draped coffin to his right, placed under the large image of Christ Crucified and with the altar alight with candles he said "Your dad is so, so proud of you, son.

"I love you."

All had spoken of Jamie - 'Gunny' or 'Gumbo' to his mates in the First Battalion, the Rifles - as a soldier with a smile on his face and always ready to join in a joke.

Thus the afternoon of solemnity was shot through with rays of humour as Mrs Janet Gunn, her unwavering voice reaching every corner of the large church, picked out some of the lighter moments in so tragically short a life.

She spoke of the way Jamie would tease her and his sister but she could never remain angry with him for long.

A bright boy who left Monmouth Comprehensive with 10 GCSEs, he set his heart on a career in the armed forces, and when once they had discussed the dangers he had replied 'It comes with the job, mum.'

"He was loyal to his friends and family and there was always laughter when he was in the house," she said.

"He was hard-working and determined, straightforward and with no guile."

The Rev. Fr Mark Soady, assistant chaplain at Chepstow's Beachley Barracks, where Rifleman Gunn was based, addressed the coffin with the words "As a Priest in the Church of God I commend you to your Creator for your devotion and commitment and as one who holds the Queen's commission, I salute your bravery.

Addressing Mr and Mrs Gunn he said "Mary was at the foot of the Cross when her son died.

"I pray now she will pray for the Holy Spirit to come and comfort you."

As the strains of the last hymn, Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go died away and as the principal mourners filed out a single bell tolled, Monmouth's final tribute to its cheerful, loyal and brave soldier.

The mourners moved on to the Forest of Dean crematorium where there was a last tribute from the Army - a firing party.