A BRAVE Ipswich-born solider who was killed in Iraq will be remembered during her funeral on Friday.Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, who grew up in Suffolk was one of four people killed in an attack on a Multi-National Forces boat patrol on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway on Sunday, November 12 - she had been serving in Iraq for just over a week.

A BRAVE Ipswich-born solider who was killed in Iraq will be remembered during her funeral on Friday.

Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, who grew up in Suffolk was one of four people killed in an attack on a Multi-National Forces boat patrol on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway on Sunday, November 12 - she had been serving in Iraq for just over a week.

Now friends and relatives of the 34-year-old, who was the second female British solider to die during the war in Iraq, will pay tributes to her at her funeral in South Shields.

The funeral, at the South Shields Crematorium, will take place at midday, and then Staff Sgt Elliott's loved ones will move to the Sea Hotel in the town.

Staff Sgt Elliott joined the Army at 18 and spent her early career in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, proving herself when she qualified as an aircraft technician, the first female to do so in the army.

She the transferred to the Intelligence Corps and served in Germany and Belize, as well as completing a number of operational tours including service in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq.

She was born and brought up in Ipswich and moved to the North East in 1998.

She had four step-brothers, two of whom are still serving in the Army.

Staff Sgt Elliott had recently been posted to Cyprus from the Defence College of Intelligence where she had been a highly successful instructor.

N Wattisham troops go to Iraq - see page 21.