MORE than 100 mourners gathered for the funeral of a Flintshire soldier and family man who died while on an army base in Germany.

Family, friends and army colleagues paid their respects to father-of-two Robert Douglas Berry, known as Rob, 23, at a service held at St Mary’s Parish Church in Bagillt on Monday.

Speaking after the service, Rob’s dad Brian told the Leader: “It was wonderful to see the amount of people that turned out to pay tribute.

“Quite a lot of his colleagues came over from Germany and the army chaplain did the service with the parish vicar.

“It was a wonderful service. The church was full and there were a lot of people outside.”

The service, where mourners sang The Lord’s My Shepherd and the Welsh National Anthem, was followed by an interment at New Brighton Cemetery, which Brian said over 200 people attended.

Rob was a member of 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards, known as ‘The Welsh Cavalry’, and leaves many family members including wife Zoe and young sons Harvey, three, and Jaiden, nine months.

“I can’t emphasise enough what a wonderful son he was,” said Brian.

“He would have done anything to help anybody, he was a wonderful person. He
had an infectious sense of humour.

“He loved his boxing and was interested in martial arts.”

Rob, who died on June 7, grew up in Greenfield and attended Greenfield Primary School and Holywell High School before joining the army three years ago.

He was stationed at Paderborn in northern Germany, where he was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan later this year.

Brian added: “He told us he was looking forward to going to Afghanistan.

“He will be missed by everybody that came into contact with him. We will miss him so much.”

A spokesman for the army has said the death is subject to an investigation and a coroner’s report.

Donations at the funeral were made to Help for Heroes.