PATRIOT Olly Browne urged people to have pride in their country as he welcomed his son back from Iraq.

The 53-year-old painter and decorator from Tattersall Gardens, Leigh, decorated his house with flags and banners and even painted a George Cross on the front of his home when his son flew back from the war-torn country in March.

Son Jack, 20, has now gone back to Iraq, but Mr Browne is so proud of his country and his son, he has left up the welcome-home banners. He said: "I'm going to keep the signs up on the side of the house until he returns home again in five-weeks' time. I don't know when I will take them down.

"In fact I think everybody should do things like this, it's time lots of people showed their support for England."

Jack is a former pupil of Deanes School, Thundersley. He is currently based outside Basra in Iraq with his fellow members of a Challenger II tank crew. He is a driver and a gunner in the Royal Dragoon Guards.