SCHOOL friends of a boy who died in a holiday tragedy off the Devon coast paid their own special tribute to him yesterday.

Louis Price, 14, died during a family diving trip to Brixham, Devon on August 12. His body was found off the coast of Brixham on September 2.

His parents, Steve and Tracey with his aunt and grandparents visited his high school, St Julians, yesterday for a memorial service with year 10 pupils.

Pupils at the school joined forces to raise money for the RNLI in memory of Louis and headteacher Steve Marshall presented a cheque for £1800 to Judith Davies, of the RNLI, at the assembly.

The youngsters held non-uniform days and one of the teachers is doing the Cardiff half marathon on Sunday in Louis' memory.

Readings about the work of the RNLI were given by four of Louis’s classmates.

Louis’ close friends Ryan Owen,15, and Elizabeth Taylor, 14, also helped raise a further £600 for the charity.

Speaking in the assembly, Mr Marshall praised the pupils for the maturity with which they handled their grief and their efforts in raising money in Louis’ memory.

He said: “It’s on occasions like this that you remember why we are collecting the money and why we are working together to benefit the RNLI. In a sense Louis is as much a part of this as we are.”

Louis’s father Steve Price said: “We’d like to thank the school for all they’ve done. They’ve worked really hard and it’s really nice that they’ve done it. We just hope they carry on doing it.”

A group of Louis’ friends worked together to create a memorial for Louis, made up of photographs of Louis and tributes from friends, which hangs outside his old maths classroom.

One tribute said: “He, like snow, came into our lives. While he was here we had fun. Though he melted away, we’ll have the memories forever.”