Corporal Paul Davis, 28, died instantly last Thursday in Afghanistan when the armoured vehicle he was riding in collided with a taxi, and then swerved into a ditch and overturned.

"His compassion and genuine regard for others was truly a breath of fresh air in a world filled with hurt and cruelty," Cpl. Shane Schofield said during one of three emotional eulogies.

Davis, married and the father of two young children, was the gunner in the vehicle when it careened off the road. An Afghan interpreter and six Canadian soldiers were also injured.

Davis, who grew up near Halifax and Bridgewater, N.S., leaves behind his wife and two daughters, age 5 and 3.

Cpl. Paul Davis, who was killed in an accident near Kandahar, was offered a promotion that would have kept him at home and out of harm's way in Afghanistan. But the grieving father of the 28-year-old soldier said his son showed courage in choosing the more dangerous assignment.

"He had the sense of duty of comradeship with the people he'd been training with, and felt he wanted to go with them," Jim Davis told CTV Atlantic in an interview from his home in Bridgewater, N.S. on Thursday.