WARM tributes have been paid to a North-East war hero who campaigned tirelessly against the murder conviction of paratrooper Lee Clegg.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Fitzroy-Smith, president of the Darlington branch of the Parachute Regiment Association, has died at the age of 85.

Known affectionately as "Fitz" or "The Boss" by many veterans in the region, he served with distinction during the Second World War.

Lt Col Fitzroy-Smith received the Military Cross for a mission behind enemy lines, while serving with the 2nd Parachute Regiment.

He spent time in North Africa, France and Greece, where he was wounded and evacuated to Italy. It was there that he met nursing sister Helen McGee, his future wife. The couple married in May 1945.

He was a key figure in the campaign to clear the name of Yorkshireman Lee Clegg, who was convicted of murdering a teenage girl, shot dead at an Army checkpoint in west Belfast in 1990. Mr Clegg was eventually acquitted in a retrial at Belfast Crown Court.

During legal battles leading up to the verdict, Lt Col Fitzroy-Smith and other ex-servicemen in the North-East threatened to boycott the Government's VE celebrations in 1995.

He also fought for the release of Scots Guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright, who were jailed for life in 1993 for shooting dead 18-year-old Peter McBride in Northern Ireland.

Lt Col Fitzroy-Smith's funeral takes place at St Cuthbert and St Mary's Church, Barton, near Darlington, on Monday, at 1pm.

A spokesman for the Darlington branch of the Parachute Regiment Association, said: "Everyone here loved Leonard and he will be sorely missed. To soldier with him was an honour."