Hundreds pay final respects to 'gentle' and 'generous' Ben who was killed in Oldbury road tragedy

The funeral of 19-year-old Ben Corfield on Wednesday, just over a month after his death in a car collision in Oldbury, saw close to 300 people come to Holy Trinity Church in Wordsley to pay their respects to a young man who was described as "generous and selfless with a big future ahead of him".

Among the mourners at the funeral were Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley alongside other Dudley councillors, as well as Dudley North MP Marco Longhi and Dudley South MP, while the church was also filled with friends from Ben's community work.

Less than a week after his friend Liberty Charris was also laid to rest, her mother Tracy Challis was also in attendance for a service led by Rev. Richard Hackett which focused on how people should hold onto memories of Ben.

Emotional tributes were paid during the service by people including his father Damian, who described his "Ned" as generous, selfless and always there to help people, as well as how he had wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps as a HGV driver and a councillor.

Other tributes spoke about Ben's silly sense of humour, the bonds he had with his friends and younger members of the family and how the world had lost a pure soul and, for many, their best friend.

Rev. Hackett said he had known Ben since he was a young man and said the funeral felt like being with friends and speaking about a friend, before quoting a line from Winnie the Pooh: "How lucky I am to have friends like you."

There were moments to reflect during the funeral, accompanied by "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears for Fears, with those attending encouraged to write messages and place them in a letter box at the door of the church.

That same support had been evident earlier in the day at Ben's home in Sedgley, where friends and close family had gathered to comfort his father Damian, mother Lynette and sister Shannon.

Ben's converted Ford was visible, with one of his friends driving it to the funeral and to the committal at Gornal Wood Crematorium, as well as the HGV owned by Damian, who drove it behind the horse-drawn carriage to the funeral.

Damian said the aim of the day was to make it a celebration of his son's life and said he and his family had been overwhelmed by the level of support they had received from people.

He said: "We've been taken aback by the amount of people who have contact us who were touched by Ben in a positive way or who had been helped by him and in what has been such a tragic time, it's been such a great comfort to have that support.

"Ben was a wonderful lad and I've not only lost my son, but I've lost my best mate and my business partner, and he was such a treasure and achieved so much in his 19 years than most of us would be happy to do in a lifetime.

"This is a celebration of what he has achieved, the positive impact he's had on people and his love of cars and trucks, especially as he was looking forward to passing his HGV test and driving with me."

Friends Ben and Liberty were part of a crowd standing on Oldbury Road on Sunday, November 20, when a Nissan Skyline hit the group, killing Liberty and Ben and injuring two others.

The tragedy happened as people gathered to watch high performance cars drive through the Black Country in what was believed to be an event organised online.