THE pallbearers hailed as heroes for carrying the Queen’s coffin on her final journey included a surf-mad soldier, a bodybuilder and a teenage underdog.
Lance Sergeant Alex Turner, Lance Corporal Tony Flynn, Lance Sergeant Elias Orlowski and Guardsman Fletcher Cox lined one side of the casket.
On the opposite side was Guardsman David Sanderson, Guardsman Luke Simpson, Lance Sergeant Ryan Griffiths and Guardsman James Patterson.
Bodybuilder Patterson, who flexes his muscles in Facebook snaps, helped prop up the lead-lined 500lb (230kg) coffin at the back.
Keen surfer Griffiths has shared a photo online of him carrying the casket alongside pictures of him surfboarding.
Youngest hero Cox, 19, from Jersey, said parading for the Queen was his “sole ambition”.
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Retired Major Danny Wright, who gave him the Lieutenant-Governor’s medal, described him as a “real underdog”.
Simpson’s dad shared an image of his son on social media, saying: “We had a tear watching but they’ve done us proud.”
Orlowski is a dog lover who was previously part of the London Guards while Sanderson, from Morpeth, Northumberland has served in the King’s Guard.
The eight members of the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, were guided by Company Sergeant Major Dean Jones, of Long Eaton, Derbyshire.
They were instructed by Second Lieutenant Freddie Hobbs, 24, from West Sussex, who commanded the Bearer Party from the rear. Both have been fighting IS.
Others were also pulled back from Iraq. Flynn, who lives with his wife in Aldershot, Hants, is being redeployed there.
Hobbs’ dad Francis, a retired Grenadier Guards Lieutenant Colonel liked a Facebook comment that the heroes “shouldn’t have to pay for drinks for months”.
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