THE haunting notes of the Army's poignant tribute to its dead accompanied an old war hero to his final resting place yesterday.

The echoes of the Last Post rang around a County Durham church yesterday long after three regimental buglers ended their homage to the much decorated Durham Light Infantry veteran.

Bugle Major Barry Dixon led the tribute to 77-year-old ex-pitman and rail worker George Bowman at his funeral service in St James' Church, in his home village of Coundon.

Mr Bowman saw some of the worst horrors of the Second World War at first hand. He survived the bloody battles of El Alamein, Mersa Matruh, Mareth Line, and Primosole Bridge, in Sicily.

He helped take the bridge at Nijmagen, in Holland, to establish a link with the Paras at Arnhem, and fought at Caen, in France, until, finally, he was caught up in the D-Day landings.

Mr Bowman, who was 77 when he died, joined the 9th DLI at Brancepeth in 1942, switched to the Cheshire Regiment in 1942 and the Gloucesters in 1945, until he was demobbed two years later

After the war, he brought his German bride, Lieselotte, back to his home in Coundon and settled down to a job at Shildon wagon works, retiring when it closed in 1984.

His son, Andrew, said: "The Army meant a lot to him and he would have appreciated the tribute.

"He talked a lot about the war and even wrote poems about the battles he fought in. He saw some terrible things and never forgot the friends who died and were buried on the roadside."