ORPINGTON: Rifleman James Brown's coffin to pass through Petts Wood

The full military funeral of rifleman James Brown, from Orpington, will be accompanied by a private service at St Barnabas’ Church in Rushet Road, St Paul’s Cray, at noon.

The 18-year-old’s body will then be taken by a cortege through Leesons Hill in St Paul’s Cray, and then onto Petts Wood Road and Tudor Way, Petts Wood.

Bearers will escort the coffin to the Royal British Legion club in Queensway, Petts Wood, where the two branch presidents will place their poppy wreaths inside the hearse.

The coffin will then be escorted up to Crest View Drive in Petts Wood.

It will then go onto St Luke’s Church in Bromley Common, where the rifleman’s body will be buried.

The cortege is expected to pass through Petts Wood between 1pm and 1.30pm and people are meeting at the RBL club at around 12.30pm.

The rifleman and Lance Corporal David Kirkness, 24, both of the 3rd Battalion Rifles, died on December 15 at a vehicle checkpoint near Sangin in Helmand province in Afghanistan.

The pair bravely stood their ground when two Taliban suicide bombers on a motorbike tried to ride into the market.