Many people paid their last respects today to Royal Marine Captain Philip Guy who died at the beginning of the Iraq war in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.

The funeral took place with full military honours in Skipton.

Mourners included Guy's 29-year-old Captain Guy's wife Helen. She gave birth to the couple's 10-day-old daughter Emily was born shortly after his death. They also have a son, Henry, who is almost two.

Captain Guy was understood to have been due to return home to be at his wife's side for the birth when the crash took place in the desert after he and colleagues from the Plymouth based 3 Commando Brigade had completed a mission in Iraq on March 21.

The service took place at Holy Trinity Church in central Skipton where the couple were married in 2000.

Many shops closed their doors as a mark of respect as fellow Royal Marines carried his coffin through the churchyard with hundreds of local people lining the market square and listening to the service over loudspeakers.

Former Royal Marine officer Daniel Hughes read the eulogy. He trained Captain Guy.

Captain Hughes said: ''Phil's legacy is all around - in his wife and children, in his family and friends, the people who he worked with.

''He touched a great many lives and all those he touched will remember him with fondness. ''Phil was the best kind of friend a person could ask for - dependable, generous, funny and as a husband and a dad he was hugely loving and compassionate.

''I will miss him as I know we all will but I am confident that his memory will be kept strong and will keep him close to us.''

Captain Hughes continued: ''I will always remember Phil with a smile.

''We laughed so much at the time we were together, even in the toughest of times.

''In fact he had a thoroughly dark sense of humour that was increased when the tide of things were against him.

''He was at his best in a group when he would lie in wait for anyone to slip up or say something stupid before pouncing on what they had said with a dryly delivered comment that would leave everyone in stitches.''

The Rev Dr Jonathan Pritchard, the curate of Holy Trinity Church, gave the sermon. He said: ''I think we begin by honouring Phil's life before God as Dan's moving eulogy has.

''Phil was a good man. He was someone to be proud of - a man who served his country well and gave his life in its service.

''He was also someone to love and be loved by, whether as a husband or as a son, as a brother or father, friend or comrade in arms.''

There was silence in Skipton High Street as the funeral cortege made its way slowly between lines of Royal Marines with heads bowed spaced at intervals through the town.

Up to 3,000 people are estimated to have watched as the hearse pulled up at the church gates and the coffin was lifted out by six Royal Marines in full dress uniform.

They carried it in silence the 50 yards through the church yard and in through the door followed by Mrs Guy and many other members of the officer's family.