Queen honours Iraq war heroes with MC

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 17 November, 2004 | Ben Fenton

[tjwmason]

Queen honours Iraq war heroes with MC

By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 17/11/2004)

The Queen pinned the Military Cross on the chests of two British soldiers yesterday, one being the first reservist to win the decoration since the Second World War.

Michael Davison, 22, a builder from Liverpool and a lance corporal in The King's and Cheshire TA Regiment, and Major Ben Hollister, 33, from Watchfield, Wilts, of The King's Regiment, won their medals for actions on the same night in different parts of Basra after the invasion of Iraq.

L/Cpl Davison received the award for outstanding bravery on his first operational tour on July 4 last year. When his platoon commander was shot in the groin during a gun battle, L/Cpl Davison dragged him to safety as bullets flew around his head.

"I am very, very proud," he said as he left Buckingham Palace.

Major Hollister won his MC for bravery and leadership after taking three men into a hostile zone of twisting alleyways in the southern Iraqi city.

"I'm gob-smacked," he said. "Like Davison, I didn't think about the danger, I just knew what had to be done."

Technically, L/Cpl Davison is the first TA ordinary soldier to win the MC, formerly the preserve of officers.

In 1993 the dual system was abolished and the Military Medal, the equivalent for other ranks, scrapped.

• . More than 500 people attended the funeral of Pte Scott McArdle, 22, yesterday, a Black Watch soldier who was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. The mourners at the service in his home town of Glenrothes, Fife, included Sarah McLaren, 20, his fiancée, who is pregnant.