FORMER paratroopers saluted an old comrade at his burial.

John Huntley, 82, from Westlea, died after battling against prostate cancer at the Prospect Hospice in Wroughton.

Yesterday, around 60 people attended the funeral service of the Arnhem veteran at the Salvation Army in Fleet Street before he was buried at Christ Church, Old Town, next to the grave of his first wife Dorothy.

Under the clear blue skies, and a cold wind, veterans of the Parachute Regiment saluted the coffin as it passed in front of the church and the standard of the Swindon branch of the Parachute Regiment Association was lowered in his honour.

Dick Stevens, chairman of the Swindon branch, said: "I always promised him a guard of honour and I am so pleased that so many veterans were able to turn up in the cold to do it.

"John had one hell of a sense of humour. He was one of only a few Arnhem veterans left in Swindon and he will be truly missed."

His son, David, 49 said: "He was a Swindon man born and bred and always ready for a laugh, but he was always very quiet about what he did in the war. I knew nothing of what he did until we went to Arnhem for two weeks, and I learned more about him then, than I ever did before."

John was one of five brothers and four sisters in a large family although only three of the nine are still alive.

John attended the Clarence Street School and spoke about his experiences at school to the Evening Advertiser in 2002 telling how he was in classes with up to 50 other children and about school discipline.

At the time he said: "There was no hurling abuse and no bullying. Everybody behaved and we all had the greatest respect for our teachers."

He left school at 14 and went to work as a baker's boy for the Co-op.

During the Second World War he joined the Parachute Regiment and served with the 3rd Parachute Battalion of the First Airborne Division, and dropped into Arnhem at the beginning of Operation Market Garden the Allied operation to capture key bridges on the river Rhine in Holland.

He fought at Arnhem for several days, until he and his comrades had to hide in a chicken coop and were forced to surrender to German troops, backed by tanks, who surrounded the hut.

The allies had considered fighting their way out but only had eight rounds of ammun-ition left.

He spent the rest of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp and after the war recovered at a hospital in the former Czechoslovakia before convalescing at Stratton Hospital.

He later returned to work for the Co-op and eventually became manager of Co-op stores in Cricklade, Wroughton and Marlowe Avenue, Swindon, before retiring at the age of 62.

Dorothy died of breast cancer in 1989, but a couple of years later he found new love with Bette Austen and they married in 1993.

Bette, 82, said: "It was very moving to see the veterans carry out the guard of honour for John.

"He leaves many nieces and nephews. He will be missed, he was a perfect gentleman and we spent many happy times together."

Anthony Osborne