Tributes have been paid to a soldier from New Addington who was killed in a car crash four hours after returning home from six months' fighting in Iraq.

Lance Corporal Paul Knight was on his way to a party at his girlfriend's house in Wiltshire to celebrate his return from the war-torn country.

The Vauxhall Corsa car he was a passenger in collided with a Mercedes Vito taxi in heavy rain near Kiwi Barracks Bulford Camp at about 7.30pm last Wednesday.

He was killed instantly along with his colleague and best friend, 22-year-old Lance Corporal Nathan Long from Gloucester, who had returned from the Gulf six months earlier.

Paul, 20, had been serving with the 4th Battalion the Rifles in Basra in southern Iraq, and his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Saunders, praised him as being one of the most promising soldiers of his generation.

He said: "We have lost a friend and an outstanding leader who has been tested under fire and whose courage and initiative became a byword.

"He was one of the brightest stars and one of the most promising and talented Lance Corporals of his generation.

"His death and that of L Cpl Nathan Long in the same accident just seem so unfair after all they have been through.

"For six months he had survived some of the most intense and costly urban fighting of the Iraq campaign, but on his first night safe home in the UK, driving to his girlfriend's to celebrate his homecoming, he was killed in a traffic accident.

"The death of any soldier is always a tragic and untimely event, but there are some whose deaths are particularly hard to bear."

Paul joined the army at 17 and was promoted to L Cpl at the early age of 19, and Lt Col Saunders praised his sense of fun and leadership skills.

He said: "He quickly proved to be an outstanding leader, but it was Paul's mischievous sense of fun that would bring a smile and a chuckle to everyone. He was a natural prankster and no one was safe from his plots."

A tribute site on social networking site Facebook has already been set up in memory of Paul, on which his sisters Becky and Natalie said: "We have all lost someone very special to us and we know that his memory will live on.

"It's not the time for sadness, it's a time for celebration as he finished his tour and made it back to camp. He would want us to be celebrating just as he would be doing now."

Paul went to Addington High School and former tutor Tim Edwards remembered his character.

He said: "He was a great lad and character, very intelligent. He always had a smile on his face and never a bad thing to say about anyone.

"We were so sad to hear about his loss as we knew he was going to go places once he joined the army."

The fatal accident was not the first in the area that day as another soldier was killed earlier that afternoon after his motorcycle clashed with a car on a nearby road.

A campaign called Drive Carefully - You're Tough but not Invincible - is being run by the army in an attempt to limit the risk of soldiers driving on their return home.

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