2nd VC awarded

Cpl Bryan Budd, VC


Posthumous VC for heroic soldier

A hero soldier who died saving seven comrades from Taleban gunfire has been awarded the highest recognition for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.

Corporal Bryan Budd, 29, of Ripon, North Yorkshire, was killed when he single-handedly stormed a Taleban position in Afghanistan, in August.

It is the first posthumous VC to be awarded since the Falklands war.

He had a daughter aged two and his wife gave birth to their second child a month after he was killed in action.

A member of the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment and originally from Scunthorpe, he was the 20th UK serviceman to die in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November, 2001.

He had been in the Army for 10 years, serving in Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Macedonia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and was about to be promoted to platoon sergeant.

His is the second VC to be awarded since 2003 and the fifth in the last 40 years.

Johnson Beharry won his in 2005 in Iraq

Herbert Jones and Ian John McKay won theirs in 1982

Keith Payne won his in Vietnam in 1969

Rambaduhar Limbu won his in Indonesia in 1965

Three of the last five winners have been from the Parachute Regiment. All were killed in action

Winners of the George Cross, given for gallantry outside of combat

Royal Logistic Corps. The award of his George Cross for outstanding bravery during operations in Iraq in which took place between April and July 2005, was announced in the Supplement to The London Gazette of Thursday 23 March 2006. Trooper Christopher Finney, The Blues and Royals, was also awarded the George Cross, for bravery in saving a comrade during the Iraq War in March 2003. Trooper ( now Lance Corporal ) Finney's award was announced in the Supplement to The London Gazette of 30 October 2003.