THEY stood in silence, hand in hand, behind their son's coffin. A hundred quiet mourners watched them in the pale sunshine of an English spring.
Rita and John Restorick said goodbye to their son, Stephen, yesterday, less than two weeks after he was shot by a sniper in Bessbrook, Co Armagh.
He had "a friendly smile", and had been smiling at Mrs Lorraine McElroy as he checked her driving licence. Then, in the words of his Battery Commander, Major Mark Milligan, he was shot "as he carried out his duties in Northern Ireland."
The mourners began arriving an hour before the ceremony and gathered outside Peterborough Crematorium to wait for the coffin of lance Bombardier Restorick to arrive.
At exactly 12.30 p.m., his coffin, draped in the Union Flag, was carried into the small church by eight comrades from his regiment, the 3rd Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery. At his parents' request there were only three wreaths. One, set in blue, red and yellow flowers, from his regiment, and two wreaths with yellow and blue flowers from the Restoricks themselves. They had asked that instead of flowers, donations be made to a British army charity and to a local charity in Bessbrook.
Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber was played as the family walked in behind the coffin. The ceremony was relayed on loudspeakers to those outside who could not find a seat.
The conductor of the humanist ceremony, Mr John Pearce, spoke of Stephen Restorick as being an "adventurous and mischievous child, without a care in the world."
He described some of the incidents in his life when he had taken risks. He had overturned his new car on the A2 motorway "and walked away without a scratch", and now his death, he said, "had touched the heart of many people in all parts of the British Isles." The death of Stephen, he hoped, "will be a catalyst to start the peace process and bring all sides together in talks.
During the committal of his body, the song, Belfast Child, by the group Simple Minds, was played at the request of Stephen's parents. Towards the end of the ceremony, in a reference to the fact that it would have been his 24th birthday, the Restoricks asked their friends to remember "that he would have wanted us to strike an upbeat note." And the Simple Minds song, Don't You Forget About Me, was played as the family left the crematorium.
Representing the Government was the Irish Ambassador to Britain, Mr Edward Barrington, who offered his "condolences and sympathy" to the Restoricks. He called for an end to "senseless killing in Northern Ireland." The chairman of the Conservative Party, the local NIP, Dr Brian Mawhinney, spoke afterwards of the desire of both governments and the people of the island of Ireland to see a lasting and permanent peace "so that all people will blossom side by side."
Outside the crematorium, as the Restorick family spoke to members of their son's regiment, Mr Danny Kennedy, an Ulster Unionist councillor from Newry District Council, said the people of Bessbrook had been "totally devastated" by the killing.
"It has been an obvious setback for the peace process. The people of Bessbrook do not want violence. I've been to many funerals in Northern Ireland and now here in Britain. But I do not think this will be the last funeral I attend."