FROM Maidstone to Barbados, friends throughout the world will remember Fernando Pinto Dos Santos as a larger than life character who was the life and soul of any party.

But the happy memories sit uncomfortably beside the thought of his tragic and violent death.

The 45-year-old was transporting clients through Southern Iraq, only five miles from the Kuwait border, when their armoured Toyota Landcruiser ran over an explosive device, killing him and two others.

Former partner Lynne Ackeny lived with Mr Santos for 12 years in Wateringbury and in Maidstone. Although he had told her this trip was to be his last, Mrs Ackeny said he had found it hard to leave his military background behind.

"He had lost friends in the Army. He saw his friend step on a land-mine in Belize and get blown apart. He always said he should have been killed too."

And she added: "To be honest he wouldn't have handled being the one that survived."

Mr Santos' funeral will take place at Stopsley Green Crematorium, Hitchin Road, Luton on June 15 at 1.45pm.