A GRENADIER from Chipping Campden said he was "proud as punch" after winning the Major General’s Silver Bugle Competition.

Lance Corporal Michael Beasley , aged 21, said he was delighted to win after he was last year’s runner up in the same competition,

At ceremonial events in London he will now be playing a silver bugle for the next year and also pockets £250 in cash.

“I’m delighted that I’ve been recognised as the best bugler in the Household Division," he said.

During the competition, each soldier played The General Salute, The Royal Salute and The Retreat. The judging panel led by The General Officer Commanding London District, Major General Ed Smyth-Osbourne, then invited the best of the buglers to return and play The Last Post.

The Major General congratulated all those taking part, stressing how important it is to maintain the quality of the bugle playing at public events.

LCpl Beasley has been a side drummer in the Army since he attended The Army Foundation College in Harrogate when he was 16.

Not just a skilled bugler and drummer, but he must perform these duties alongside those of an assault pioneer in his battalion, the Grenadier Guards.

As an infantryman in 2012, LCpl Beasley completed a tour in the Fire Support Group with his battalion in Afghanistan.