Funeral for Rainham hero Capt Dan Read takes place
More than 700 mourners attended the service at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall and hundreds lined the streets outside as the county where he lived with his wife Lorraine paid tribute to him.
Captain Read, a former Rainham Mark Grammar School pupil, was killed in Afghanistan on January 11 as he was attempting to defuse a roadside bomb.
He had already made safe 32 improvised explosive devices saving many lives before the blast which took his own.
As well as his widow, known as Lou, he leaves his mother and father, his sisters and nieces and nephews.
Second-in-command of 11 EOD Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, Major Kier Head, said Capt Read was a man the army could not afford to lose.
Maj Head said Capt Read had met numerous challenges in his army career, being commissioned from the ranks, completing his training a the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, passing his all arms commando course as well as the night threat course.
High threat means the enemy is deliberately targeting the IEDD operator.
There only a few specialist operators in the forces and it takes time to grow them, said Major Head.
"The operator needs to be intelligent enough to understand the technical intricacies of these devices, intuitive enough to understand the enemy's likely plan to deploy them, brave enough to conduct that long walk to the suspected location of the device.
"The operator then has to lie close to it and be clever enough to add all these factors together to develop the best render safe procedure."
He said Capt Read was part of a team which bonded together to make something special.
"Dan built up his team in his image and they would all do anything for him."
He said for Capt Read to return to his team after his injuries from an IED took an unbelievable amount of courage - "a very, very special type of man.
"Dan was that officer, was that soldier."
Capt Dan Read's widow Lorraine, known as Lou, and mum Les.
Picture by James Ram.
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