Funeral for soldier Sarah

The husband, parents, friends and comrades of the first British woman to die on active service in Afghanistan today gathered to say a final farewell.Soldiers from the Intelligence Corps in which Corporal Sarah Bryant served lined the gravel path leading to Holy Trinity Church in Wetheral, Cumbria.

A cortege of three cars, the hearse leading the way, arrived shortly after noon.

A party of six pallbearers, close comrades and friends, carried Cpl Bryant's coffin - draped in the Union flag, with her beret, belt, campaign medals and a single red rose on top.

Her husband, fellow soldier Cpl Carl Bryant, her parents Des and Maureen Feely, and Cpl Bryant's parents, followed behind.

Lt Gen Sir John Kiszely, Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps, was also among the mourners.

Cpl Bryant, who was based in Shrewsbury just a year before her death, was one of four soldiers killed when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle during an operation near Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, on June 17.

The dedicated soldier, who had been in the army for six years, was described as the "angel of the north" by her grief-stricken father after her death.

In today's order of service, a tribute was paid to the other fatalities of the roadside bomb.

It read: "In memory also of those soldiers who died alongside Sarah, Cpl Sean Robert Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Trooper Paul Stout."