Plans for 3 services to honour dead soldier

Slain Kiwi soldier Tim O'Donnell. Photo / Facebook

Three services will be held tomorrow as friends and fellow servicemen farewell slain Kiwi soldier Tim O'Donnell.

Representatives from the Army, the Air Force and the police will be at the funeral of Lieutenant O'Donnell at Linton Military Camp outside Palmerston North.

Dignitaries including Prime Minister John Key are also expected at the service, after which the decorated soldier will be buried with full military honours.

Several of Lieutenant O'Donnell's Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment comrades will accompany his body to the funeral.

At the same time, a service will be held at Burnham Military Camp in Christchurch for members of his unit unable to be at Linton.

A service of remembrance is also scheduled to be held at the Anglican Cathedral of St Paul in Thorndon, Wellington.

Members of the public are invited to attend this service, which will begin at 1pm.

Lieutenant O'Donnell, 28, was killed when his patrol was attacked while on a routine patrol in the Bamiyan province in northeastern Afghanistan last week.

He had been stationed at Burnham before his deployment.

He was the first New Zealand soldier to die in combat since Private Leonard Manning was killed in East Timor in 2000.

Lance Corporal Matthew Ball, 24, and Private Allister Baker, 23, were wounded in the attack in Bamiyan, as was an Afghan interpreter.

All four were in the lead vehicle on patrol, which was destroyed by a roadside bomb.

Those travelling behind in the convoy were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.

The Prime Minister last week announced an independent court of inquiry into Lieutenant O'Donnell's death.

This is expected to provide advice to the military on tactics, procedures and equipment.