Yorkshire town mourns female soldier killed in Afghan conflict

Capt Head, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, the Royal Logistic Corps, was injured when a bomb went off as she worked on a complex set of improvised explosive devices in an alleyway in Nahr-e-Saraj, Helmand Province, on Monday. The 29-year-old was flown home and treated at hospital in Birmingham, where she died yesterday.

Her family said in a statement: “We wish to say we are extremely proud of Lisa. Lisa always said that she had the best job in the world and she loved every second of it. No one was more loved.”

Capt Head studied biology at Huddersfield University before attending the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, from 2004 to 2005. She was commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) and initially trained as an air transport liaison officer, deploying to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2007.

The regiment’s commanding officer Lt Col Adam McRae said she would be remembered as “passionate, robust and forthright” who lived life to the full “be it at work, on the sporting field or at the bar”.

She was at the pinnacle of her trade and had gone to Afghanistan fully aware of the risks. “These dangers did not faze her as she was a self-assured, highly-effective operator and a well-liked leader. Methodical and professional in her work, she was always eminently pragmatic and calm under pressure.”

Lt Col Mark Budden, commanding officer of Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Task Force, said: “In a dark time, she had a natural energy surrounding her, an energy that provides a light to shine a path for us all. She was a role model to us all.”

Sarah Bryant was the first female soldier killed in Afghanistan in a bomb attack in June 2008. The 26-year-old, a member of the Intelligence Corps, died in a roadside bomb attack in Lashkar Gah.