The daughter of an airman's fiancee has travelled to Holland to see him laid to rest with full military honours - 66 years after he was killed.

Sheila Hamilton attended the burial ceremony of Flight Sergeant John Paddy' Kehoe and Stanley Mullenger at Bergen Military Cemetery.

They were members of the four man crew of an RAF Hampden bomber P1206 which was shot down as it returned from a raid over the industrial city of Essen, Germany, in 1941.

At the time, Sgt Kehoe had just become engaged to Burley-in-Wharfedale nurse Mary Irving.

Despite going on to marry and have six children - including Sheila - she never forgot her wartime romance with the dashing 20-year-old RAF hero.

After an attack by a German night fighter, the Hampden crashed into a potato field near the village of Berkhout in Holland.

The bodies of two crew members were thrown clear but the bodies of Sgt Kehoe and Sgt Stanley Mullenger remained in the wreckage until last September when they were dug up in a £750,000 project financed by the Dutch Government.

It was intended that Sgt Kehoe would be returned to a family plot in his native County Wexford, Ireland but experts discovered the remains of the crewmen could not be separated.

The decision was taken that they would be laid to rest with the other two crew members in the Dutch military cemetery nearby.

Mrs Hamilton, of Addingham, began researching the story on behalf of her mother and has been drawn into the wider relationship of the Dutch and English people who forged a long lasting bond of friendship in the furnace of war time adversity.

Mrs Hamilton said: "On the whole it all went well.

"I found myself sat on the same table as the British and Irish Ambassadors for the Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands, and there was also Air Commodore Andrew Sudlow of the RAF whom I spoke to.

"The Dutch Air and Navy services were very well represented, including Captain Paul Petersen who was in charge of the excavation of the plane. All the relatives have said this man did a fantastic job and we are all grateful for his dedication and professionalism towards P1206. The MOD and the Dutch authorities did a marvellous job, and it all went off without a hitch."

John Kehoe's sister Margaret made the journey from Tullamore, County Offfaly, Ireland. She said: "I wanted to say goodbye to him after all these years."

Another 300 people attended the ceremony including 25 relatives.

"They flew together and died together 66 years ago. They will now finally all rest together," said Mrs Hamilton.

A spokesman for the MOD said: "As a mark of comradeship, the remains of Sergeant Mullenger, Wireless Operator Air Gunner on the Hampden, and Sergeant Kehoe, Air Gunner, have been laid in a single coffin beneath headstones lying back-to-back with the graves of their previously buried companions.

"As the Queen's Colour Squadron lowered the coffin, a trumpeter from the Band of the RAF Regiment played The Last Post and, as a tribute, two aircraft from the Royal Netherlands Air Force performed a flypast."