Ex-tutor pays tribute to bomb blast heroine

A TRIBUTE from Yorkshire has added to the roll call of remembrance paid for the female bomb disposal expert killed in action in Afghanistan.

Captain Lisa Jade Head was remembered with pride by her former university tutor Dr Cathy Kirby yesterday following the news the 29-year-old was killed by a bomb blast as she worked on a complex set of improvised explosive devices in an alleyway in Helmand on Monday.

The popular soldier from Almondbury, near Huddersfield, was flown home and treated at hospital at the Queen Elizabeth NHS Hospital in Birmingham but died there from her injuries.

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She was the second female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan following the death of Sarah Bryant who died in a bomb attack in June 2008.

Members of Lisa’s family were too upset to talk yesterday but speaking in the tranquil gardens outside Huddersfield University Dr Kirby remembered her “friendly personality” and her “lovely smile”.

The officer graduated with a 2:1 honours degree in human biology from Huddersfield University in 2003.

Her final year personal tutor and project supervisor Dr Kirby, a 43-year-old lecturer in Biological Sciences, said Cpt Head was a student who stood out from the crowd.

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“I just remember her as being a lovely, enthusiastic student.

“I remember her well, which is saying something because there's so many students and yet I knew who Lisa was immediately.”

Dr Kirby said Cpt Head was a “driven” personality who took part in every aspect of her course with enthusiasm and even helped develop teaching materials for outreach courses in the community.

She described her as “really organised” and “very self-motivated” as well as a student who always took the lead in projects. She took a special interest in the cardio-vascular system.

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Dr Kirby said she remembered her as “very much down to earth – just really engaging, and that’s a really good quality to have in a student.

"And a lovely, friendly personality. Very upbeat. I remember very well the smile on her face that you've probably seen on all the photos.

“She had a lovely smile."

Following graduation, Capt Head had attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, from 2004 to 2005, and was commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps.

Having been selected to train for the Ammunition Technical Officers course, she subsequently was posted to 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, and served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Dr Kirby said she recalled Cpt Head as being “very driven” and clearly interested in Army activities while still at university.

“Sometimes you hear a student wants to do this and you think they're never going to get there, but not Lisa,” she added.

“She was going to make it so it didn't surprise me.

“She knew exactly what she was going to do.”

Dr Kirby said she found out about her former student's death in an email from a colleague.

"I was just completely devastated,” the lecturer added.

“It was difficult to think about anything else last night apart from her family and how they must be feeling. It's a terrible loss for everybody."

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And asked about how she died, Dr Kirby said: "It's very courageous what she did.

“It certainly brings home to everybody, really, what's happening out in Afghanistan and the risks people are putting themselves under."

Vidal Buckle, a childhood friend, said she was a “very happy and joyful character” and he would remember her for her bravery.

She had been on the frontline of the bitter conflict for little over three weeks.

Deadly job of disposal experts

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Captain Lisa Head was the sixth soldier from her crack regiment to be killed defusing roadside bombs in Afghanistan.

The officer, who died on Tuesday from injuries sustained in an alleyway blast in Nahr-e-Saraj, Helmand province, on Monday, typified the bravery and selflessness of bomb disposal experts from her regiment.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will not specify how many such experts – known as Ammunition Technical Officers (ATOs) – there are in 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps. But the regiment's website says it has 500 specialist soldiers and ATOs make up the majority of its personnel.