Emotions ran high today as mourners gathered to bid farewell to a Hove guardsman described as "a soldier to his heart" after he was killed just weeks after arriving in Afghanistan.

Guardsman Jamie Janes, 20, of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was fatally wounded while on a foot patrol near Nad e-Ali district centre in Helmand on October 5.

The improvised explosive device also wounded three of his colleagues and was followed up by an insurgent ambush which the patrol had to fight off before evacuating the wounded soldiers.

Guardsman Janes, from Brighton, East Sussex, died en route to hospital. His body was flown back to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire on October 9 before being driven through the streets of Wootton Bassett.

Hundreds of mourners turned out for the full military service at St Philip's Church in Hove.

The order of service read: "Jamie was a soldier to his heart and a friend to all. He knew the dangers he would face in battle but had the courage to keep soldiering."

Police motorcycles rode ahead of Guardsman Janes's coffin, which arrived at the church on a carriage drawn by four horses. The coffin was covered with a Union flag.

Heavy sobs could be heard above music played by the Band of the Grenadier Guards before Guardsman Janes's poppy-decked coffin was led into church by six pall-bearers.

Flowers, including some spelling out the words Son and My Baby, were carried on top of the carriage which brought his coffin to the church.

Fields Of Gold by Eva Cassidy was played to mourners, including his mother Jacqueline, before a welcome by the Rev Stephen Terry, rector of Aldrington Parishes.

He said: "This is a sad occasion but I believe that at a funeral service we do two things: we mourn the death but we also celebrate the life.

"Although Jamie was only 20 years on this earth, there is no doubt that he has left his mark on all those who met him in those few short years."

The Calling's Wherever You Go was played before the Rev Peter Hewlett-Smith, officiating chaplain to the Grenadier Guards, praised Guardsman Janes, highlighting his "mischievous streak".

But he added that he also possessed strong qualities that stood him in good stead in the British Army as part of the Grenadier Guards.

"There are certain personal values and standards that are essential in the British Army," Mr Hewlett-Smith told mourners.

"I want to highlight a few of them: selfless commitment, physical and moral courage in the face of danger, honesty and loyalty, and total professionalism.

"Jamie displayed all these qualities. He was without doubt a fine soldier."

Mr Terry said it was common for people outside the military to detach themselves from the dangers and sacrifices made by service personnel.

He said: "It's all too easy to sit watching the news, watching programmes about army life and service life. It seems safely detached and it's really not going to touch us.

"It's all too easy to think that being a soldier is just like any other job, but it isn't.

"We ask our soldiers to go into situations of danger and difficulty and uphold the highest standards of human conduct, standards that we ourselves more often don't live up to."

Mr Terry said he was sure Guardsman Janes was no saint but just "a normal human being" with "extraordinary standards".

"Jamie's life has not been lived in vain," he said. "His life has had direction, purpose and fulfilment. We should be proud that he served his country to the ultimate."

R Kelly's The World's Greatest was followed by prayers, the singing of Amazing Grace and a prayer of farewell before the Regimental Collect.

It contained the words: "O God grant that thy servants, the Grenadier Guards, may ever be mindful of their proud and costly heritage, that continuing to guard what is right, and fighting for what is just, they may so serve thee here in this life that they may be counted worthy to join those who now continue their service in the life to come."

Guardsman Janes had only just been deployed to Afghanistan as part of 11 Light Brigade, which is taking over as Britain's force in the country for the next six months.

He was born on May 16 1989 in Stafford, and his family moved to Brighton when he was aged two.

He attended Hove Park Comprehensive School and began his army career at Harrogate Foundation College aged 16 before moving to the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick.

As well as his girlfriend, Guardsman Janes leaves behind three brothers - including one serving in the Army - two sisters and his mother.

The funeral procession filed out before his coffin was carried by horse-drawn carriage to Hove Cemetery for private burial.