Members of the armed forces have paraded through a small town in Wiltshire to thank residents for honouring dead British service personnel.

Since April 2007 people in Wootton Bassett, near Swindon, have lined the streets more than 100 times as funeral corteges solemnly drive through the town to nearby RAF Lyneham, where the bodies of servicemen and women are repatriated after deaths in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The tribute included a flypast from a Hercules aircraft, which is based at Lyneham.

It was followed by the Central Band of the RAF, the Prince of Wales Divisional Band and the HMS Collingwood Volunteer Band performing musical pieces in the town's High Street.

Sir Clive Loader, the Commander in Chief Air Command, presented an illuminated scroll to the people of Wootton Bassett.

Thanking the town for their show of respect, the head of the British Army, Sir Richard Dannatt, said in a letter: "In many respects, it is the things that cost nothing that are the ones that are the most important - a friendly greeting in the street, a prayer in church.

"But the gestures shown by the people of Wootton Bassett surpass these at every level."

Defence Secretary John Hutton attended the event and thanked members of the public for their support and pride of the armed forces.

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