FAMILY and friends of a Newport bomb disposal expert killed following an explosion in Afghanistan held a memorial service for him yesterday.

Dozens of family members, friends and veterans from the Royal British Legion paid their last respects at a moving church service in memory of Sapper Connor Ray, of 33 Engineer Regiment.

Inside St Mary’s Church, in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, where Sapper Ray was brought up and went to school, there was a giant photograph of the beaming soldier, whose family moved to Newport in 2002.

The most poignant moment came when a poem written by Sapper Ray’s youngest sister, Bonnie, was read out.

The 16-year-old wrote: “A million times I needed you, a million times I cried, if love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.”

It ended: “I never thought I’d be sat here so young, at such a wonderful brother’s service but sleep tight Con. From your youngest baby sister.”

His sisters Bonnie and Hollie, 17, were comforted by their aunt, Eileen, as they walked out of the church to Eye of the Tiger . Sapper Raywas fatally injured while searching an unoccupied compound in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on the eve of his 21st birthday last month and died a week later on April 18.

To donate to the Connor Ray Appeal Fund, visit www.bmycharity.com/ConnorRay