"You've got to put the lads to bed properly"

Those emotive words from a veteran soldier with a tear in his eye summed up a proud and poignant day in Aveley when the funeral of Lance Corporal Nicky Mason drew hundreds to the village's St Michael’s church.

On a windswept, rainy afternoon - in stark contrast to the scorching Afghanistan desert where the 26 year old 2 Para soldier met his death - tears flowed and friends, family and comrades in arms paid tribute to the man described as a model soldier.

Rarely can there have been such emotional scenes at the quaint church, where hundreds who couldn’t make it into the building huddled together for warmth and comfort in front of a huge TV screen, relaying the moving service outside.

Nicky’s parents Linda and Dennis were proud parents as Nicky’s brothers and sisters Lee, Francine, Victoria, Jodie and baby Jessica walked behind the coffin of their son, draped in a Union Jack and carried by his fellow soldiers.

Jodie spoke at the service on behalf of her parents saying: "Nicky was our constant glow, we could not have asked for a more wonderful son. He made us feel the proudest parents on earth."

Soldier Danny Pearce described Nicky as an "energetic, loyal, caring, passionate soldier who was always full of life," adding he "shone like the Essex diamond he was."

Another soldier, lifelong friend Chris Welch, who grew up with Nicky before they both joined the army, remembered fitness training with Nicky in Belhus woods and, reflecting on the huge turnout at the service, said: "He will be looking down on us now, laughing and thinking ‘blimey, I was more popular than I thought'."

At the end of the service veteran paratroopers lined the church pathway as Nicky’s coffin was carried to the nearby Aveley war memorial. A volley of shots shattered the silence, the notes of the Last Post echoed around the churchyard and then rounds of spontaneous applause broke out as Nicky’s body was driven away to South Essex crematorium for a family committal.