Hundreds of mourners pay respects to hero

Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of a Kidderminster nurse and Territorial Army reservist killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Family, friends and colleagues of Lance Corporal Richard Larkin were at Stourbridge Crematorium for yesterday's moving service to pay their final respects.

The 39-year-old, from Castle Road in Cookley, near Kidderminster, was killed along with three other soldiers in a roadside explosion in Helman Province on June 17.

The other soldiers to lose their lives were Corporal Sarah Bryant, the first woman to die in the conflict, along with Corporal Sean Robert Reeve, who was 28, and Paul Stout, 31.

The body of Lance Corporal Larkin was brought into the crematorium chapel to the sound of a lone piper. He was serving with the Territorial Army's SAS23 Brigade when the incident which took his life occurred.

He was described by friends and family as a beloved and devoted husband, father, son and brother. Lance Corporal Larkin leaves wife Teresa and three children. He had been taking part in a planned operation east of Lashkar Gah when the Land Rover he was travelling in was blown up. Lance Corporal Larkin had worked for the past four years as a night charge nurse at Evesham Community Hospital in Worcestershire. He joined in June 2004 as an emergency nurse practitioner.

In a statement issued through the MoD, the family said: "He was a beloved husband, father, son and brother, whose tragic and untimely death will be mourned by his family, friends and colleagues."