A KOREAN war hero was buried yesterday - 50 years after his pals paid their last respects.

Friends and family thought Major Michael Newcombe had died during the Korean war when the Army mistakenly listed him as killed in action.

The Major, known to his friends as Recce, had been listed as a casualty when a moustache - similar to his own - was found on the field of battle.

His "passing" made front page news, and commanding officers paid tribute to the Major, who had been awarded the Military Cross for extreme valour during conflict. A memorial service was packed.

But all the time, Maj Newcombe, of Wideopen, Newcastle, was holed up in a Korean prisoner of war camp, from where he returned safely.

His friend and colleague Graham Sinclair, 75, of Hexham, Northumberland, worked with Maj Newcombe at Northumberland County Council.

He said: "I was looking through his photograph album with him one day, when a copy of the Newcastle Journal from the early 1950s dropped out and there was the story about his death on the front. It described him, quite rightly, as a war hero, and said he had been killed. He was laughing about it as he showed it to me."

Maj Newcombe grew up in Newcastle and studied architecture before being commissioned to join the 1st Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry in 1939.

He served in Syria, Tobruk, Malta, and the Dodecanese.

He later sought a Regular Commission, becoming a gunner in 1947 and serving in Germany and Korea.

He was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery at the River Imjin battle, where he was believed to have died.

In a book he wrote on his military life, Guns and The Morning Calm, published in 1999, the only reference he makes to his death is the apparent discovery on the field of his trademark moustache.

After retiring from the Army in 1963, Maj Newcombe joined Northumberland County Council where he worked in civil defence, eventually becoming county emergency planning officer.

He retired in 1985.

Major Newcombe, who was 82, never married and left no children. He was buried after a memorial service yesterday.

Mr Sinclair said: "He had a lot of enthusiasm and never lost his authority.

"He wouldn't suffer being called Mr Newcombe or Michael. It was Maj Newcombe or Recce to his friends. He was a wonderful man."