Cathedral tributes for RAF woman

Flt Lt Sarah Mulvihill's funeral was attended by 350 RAF personnel

More than 450 mourners packed into Canterbury Cathedral for the funeral of the first British servicewoman to be killed on duty in Iraq.

Flt Lt Sarah Mulvihill, 32, from 28 (AC) Squadron was among five service personnel killed when their helicopter crashed in Basra on 6 May.

Her coffin was carried into the Kent cathedral by colleagues from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire where she was based.

Her parents, Sue and Terry Poole, and 13 relatives followed the procession.

'Miss you'

Flt Lt Mulvihill's husband Lee was among them, along with her brother Jason, who paid an emotional tribute to his sister.

"I miss you so much, we all do, every single one of us here," he said.

"You meant so much to so many people in so many different ways."

With a picture of a smiling Flt Lt Mulvihill mounted on an easel facing the congregation, Gp Capt Duncan Welham, her station commander, said she was "confident, talented, cheeky, sociable, cheerful, reliable, trustworthy, supportive, loving, outgoing".

"Her career was full of joy and fun but it was always underwritten by an all-consuming professionalism," he added.

She had wanted to join the RAF since becoming a cadet in the Sturry area of Canterbury, where she grew up.

She showed a "healthy disregard" for the rules, "hurtling around the gym" at RAF Benson, Gp Capt Welham added.

Flt Lt Mulvihill "meant so much to so many people" her brother said

"This commitment to her sport, and lust for adventure, pervaded everything she did," he said.

"If I had to choose someone to stand shoulder to shoulder with in the trenches facing the enemy Sarah would be that person."

The Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev Robert Willis, said the cathedral was a "place of protection, familiarity and community" to Flt Lt Mulvihill.

He said it was fitting, on the day designated as Veterans' Day, to remembers those who had served their country.

Flt Lt Mulvihill was on a routine mission on the day she died along with four servicemen.

Among them was Wing Cdr John Coxen, 46, the most senior British officer killed in action in Iraq, who was also stationed at RAF Benson.

The others were pilots Lt Cdr Darren Chapman, 40, and Cpt David Dobson, 27, along with gunner Paul Collins, 21. They were all stationed at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset.

The funeral was followed by a private cremation at Barham Crematorium, with an RAF flypast.

The funeral of Wing Cdr Coxen takes place on Wednesday at Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire.