The distraught mother of a Deal serviceman killed in Afghanistan has spoken about how much she will miss her 33-year-old son.

Win Baker, 59, from Deal, described Sgt Robert Loughran-Dickson as a hero whose boyhood dream to be a member of the military police had became a reality.

She said she was proud of what her son had achieved and tearfully added that she will miss him giving her a hug and telling her he loved her.

“I always got phone calls and letters. Now I am getting through one day at a time.”

Sgt Robert Loughran-Dickson, who leaves a son Robert, born in 1992, went to school in Deal.

He was a member of the Deal Air Training Corps, where he played the bugle at Remembrance Day services.

Mrs Baker said: “Robert loved the ATC. When he was growing up he always wanted to be in the military police.”

He joined the army in 1997 where he began his military career in the Royal, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers before transferring to the Royal Military School in 2001. He died of gunshot wounds while taking part in a routine patrol Helmand province on November 18.

On Tuesday Mrs Baker and her family travelled to RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, to take part in a repatriation service.

* For more details see this week's East Kent Mercury.