Captain David Hicks - Person of the Year

Nominating Captain David Hicks of the Royal Anglian Regiment as his Person of the Year 2007 shows that Gordon Brown can get something right.

"Captain David Hicks, from Wokingham, died in Afghanistan this year, while serving with the Royal Anglian Regiment. Aged just 26, he was already a veteran of Bosnia and Iraq. Through the spring and summer, he commanded fighting patrols deep into enemy territory, always leading from the front. On August 11, as an acting company commander, he was in charge of 50 men in a patrol base near Sangin when it came under Taliban attack. When a rocket-propelled grenade exploded above the patrol base, he received multiple shrapnel wounds. Though five others with wounds were taken out by a Chinook helicopter, he declined and carried on in command of the outpost, even refusing a morphine injection on the grounds that it might cloud his judgement. He died later that day, and now lies in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, where he was buried with full military honours. For me, the story of Captain Hicks, his dedication and sacrifice, is at one with a great tradition long embodied in Britain’s Armed Forces. That is why he is my Person of the Year."

Link> The Telegraph: Person of the Year