Private Robbie Hayes was the first British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan this year and the 246th since the conflict began nine years ago but statistics mattered little to the near 500- strong crowd who gathered to mark his final homecoming on Friday and pay their last respects.

The 19-year-old former pupil of Burwell Primary School and Bottisham Village College, a keen boxer and rugby player, was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand Province just ten months after completing his army training.

And the service it had been his childhood dream to join gave him a funeral with full military honours including a volley of shots at his graveside.

His cortege had arrived to the sound of a single bell tolling past crowds in the churchyard hearing the service relayed on loudspeakers, into the church packed with members of his family, his friends and sporting chums, local dignitaries and army colleagues.

Veterans proudly bearing the medals won in battles fought a lifetime ago rubbed shoulders with teenagers more familiar with the music of Ministry of Sound and Florence and the Machine – the soundtracks of Robbie's life that were chosen alongside the more traditional hymns for the service.

"Whether you knew Robbie for five years or five minutes you knew he was special," said Trevor Cox, Robbie's mother's partner.

"He had so much to live for and his mum and I can only imagine how his life could have been. We hope his courage inspires all those who knew him to follow their dreams. He was the bravest of the brave and a true hero."

"From childhood, Robbie had one ambition, to be a soldier. He fulfilled his dream. We are so immensely proud of him."

Robbie's mother Diane Baldwin's note on the order of service spelled out what so many already knew and during the service she spoke softly of the special bond between a mother and her son before reading a poem as her tribute.

Robbie's girlfiend Jemma Redfarn, who also read a poem, said there would always be a special place for him deep in her heart.

"You have not left us," she said: "Sleep tight my brave soldier. I will love you always, your Jemma with a J."

And Cpl Tom Baldwin, Robbie's instructor for six months during his training at Catterick in Yorkshire said the soldier he called 100 per cent Hayes was "a pleasure to instruct."

He told the congregation Robbie was one of the few of the many he had taught who had left an impact on him. "If I had ten like him, I wouldn't need much more," he said.

"He had the core values of a good soldier always putting others first and doing the right thing on a difficult day.

"I was devasted to hear his life had been taken while serving in Afghanistan. I believe he died doing the job he loved and was extremely good at."

Canon Stephen Earl, vicar of Burwell, who conducted the funeral service with two Army chaplains, said Robbie's death had left a profound sense of shock and sadness in the village even among people who did not know him or his family personally.

"He had so much to give and his loss is a deep tragedy, more than words can express," he said.

And his sentiments were echoed by the many villagers standing together on a bleak January day to say goodbye to one of their own.

One woman said: "I didn't know hin but that didn't seem to matter. I just felt I wanted to be here because he was our Burwell hero."