A GUARD of honour was held at the funeral of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) employee, Paul Witt yesterday.

The funeral was held inside a packed West Chapel at Cambridge Cremetorium at 12.45pm, where over 100 past and present fire service employees joined the family and friends of Paul to pay tribute to his life.

Paul died while on duty, following a road traffic collision in Brentwood in Essex on October 4. He was aged 59. It is thought that he had taken ill shortly before the collision. No one else was injured.

A fire engine from Cambridge Fire Station, crewed by retired firefighters, followed the hearse from his home village of Burwell. The retired firefighters

worked alongside Paul when he was a control operator at Parkside Fire Station, before the control room was moved to Fire Service Headquarters in

1986.

They were met at the chapel by a guard of honour and a standard bearer carrying a CFRS flag. Four pallbearers then carried the coffin, which had

Paul’s cap placed on it, into the chapel to the theme to ‘Morse’by Barrington Pheloung.

Tributes were paid by Justin Witt, Paul’s son, and Graham Stagg, Chief Fire Officer for CFRS.

Following the service, the song ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby Mc Ferrin was played as guests left the chapel.

Graham Stagg, Chief Fire Officer said: “Paul joined the service as a control operator at Parkside Fire Station in Cambridge and moved with Control to

Service Headquarters in 1986. Following a number of promotions, Paul was appointed Group Commander with responsibility for Communications

Equipment to support Fire Control. It was in this role that Paul gave a tremendous amount of support and technical knowledge to the Combined Fire

Control, greatly aiding in its success.

“On top of this, Paul was universally respected across the service, not only for his dedication, knowledge and hard work, but also for his sense of humour,

being able to laugh at himself and generally make the service a better and happier place to work. He is greatly missed.”

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