Bravery rewarded
An Army explosives specialist who defused a massive Taliban bomb spoke yesterday of how his thoughts are with his colleagues in Afghanistan as he collected a medal at Buckingham Palace.
Captain James Fidell, from York, said he was “flattered” to receive the Queen’s Gallantry Medal at the ceremony but insisted that “brave stuff” was being done every day by other service personnel.
The 29-year old from the Royal Logistics Corps, who is now an instructor on how to dispose of improvised explosive devices, spent eight hours in August last year in a pitch-black tunnel in sweltering heat defusing a 110lb bomb, working in a space so tight that he could not wear a helmet or body armour.