More than 100 people gathered to celebrate the life of Wayne Green, a former soldier.

The 29-year-old ex-Kingsman was laid to rest this morning after a short ceremony at St William of York Church.

A crowd of people took up the pavement on both sides of the church entrance, with a mass of flowers surrounding Wayne’s coffin.

The hearse was covered in floral tributes with ‘cousin’ and ‘nephew ‘spelt out in the display.

Two ribbons saying Bolton Wanderers and ‘RIP Wayne’ were attached to the word ‘brother’ written out in flowers, and one veteran left a poppy wreath in his memory.

Six pallbearers including his friends, Pierce Lafferty and Brad Thomasson, carried Wayne’s coffin past 11 standards and a row of veterans waiting outside the church.

Father Morrough O’Brien led the service, singing and sharing stories of Wayne’s life, from his behaviour while parents put him to bed, and his desperate attempts to catch big fish.

Father O’Brien also offered advice to Wayne’s family and friends, relaying something his mother had told him 20 years after his father’s death.

He said: “You will never get over it, but you will learn to live on.

“The only consolation we have is that we can support one another.”

Inside the church, Wayne’s brother, Zac, placed a bible and a metal cross on top of his brother’s coffin.

Father O’Brien commended Wayne’s body, a ritual that asks God to welcome the spirit of the deceased into his arms.

His coffin was sprinkled with Holy water to symbolise baptism, before being incensed to honour Wayne’s body.

The coffin, adorned with the crest of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and his Army-issued hat, left the church to David Gray’s Babylon before being committed to Heaton Cemetery.

Wayne is said to have taken his own life after reaching “the end of his tether” on Sunday, November 17.

He is loved and missed greatly by his family.