Hero Shropshire soldier Kim Hughes, awarded the George Cross for an “outstanding act” of bravery disposing of bombs in Afghanistan, today said it was all in a day’s work.

The modest staff sergeant, hailed by military top brass as the “bravest of the brave”, has been honoured for what was described as “the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan”.

• Read more about Staff Sergeant Hughes in today’s Shropshire Star

Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes

It was announced in London yesterday that he was one of two soldiers to be awarded the military honour. His fellow recipient and close friend Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, was killed attempting to disarm a bomb in the Helmand Province in October.

Staff Sergeant Hughes will receive the medal from the Queen at Buckingham Palace in the summer.

Today his mother Frances Trask, of Aqueduct, Telford, said she was unbelievably “proud” of her “little boy”, but revealed she only found out the reason her son was getting the medal from watching on television as “he’s just so modest”.

Last August Staff Sergeant Hughes dismantled seven insurgent bombs by hand and without any protective clothing so five seriously wounded soldiers and the bodies of two dead comrades could be recovered.

Miss Trask said the whole family was overjoyed at news of the award – including his 82-year-old grandmother Brenda, who lives in Devon.

The proud mother said: “I’m so pleased she has lived to see this. She phoned me when she saw him on the television and said ‘I’m so proud’, that’s all she kept saying and she was crying.

“I have been getting texts and e-mails from people who are so proud, everyone is just over the moon.

“Even from people who don’t know Kim but know me, it has just been amazing.

Kim's proud mother Frances Trask

“He is home again next week so it will just be so nice to see him and spend a lot of quality time with him.

“I’m really looking forward to the day in London. I will go out and buy the best I can afford for my little boy. I am so unbelievably proud.”

Following yesterday’s announcement, Staff Sergeant Hughes said: “When you look back you realise what you have achieved.

“When I was there I was doing a job and you are always thinking about the next step.

“It’s slightly unnatural – it’s just a task you get on with.

“It is amazing to receive the award. In our trade we don’t get a lot of these awards on the whole.”

Bomb disposal hero Captain Daniel Shepherd, 28, of the Royal Logistic Corps, who defused 13 Taliban improvised explosive devices by hand in 36 hours of continuous activity was awarded a posthumous George Medal today. He was among more than 150 servicemen and women to be awarded honours today, including Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 39, former commanding officer of 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards, who was killed in Afghanistan last July. He as awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service posthumously.

By Wayne Beese

The George Cross

The George Cross ranks along with the Victoria Cross as Britain’s highest award for gallantry.

It is the top bravery award that civilians can receive, and is also presented to members of the military for acts of extraordinary heroism not in the presence of the enemy.

The medal citation for Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes reads:

“On August 16 2009, Staff Sergeant Hughes, a High Threat Improvised Explosive Device Disposal operator, along with a Royal Engineers Search Team, was tasked to provide close support to the 2 RIFLES Battlegroup during an operation to clear a route, south west of Sangin.

“In preparation for the operation, elements of A Company deployed early to secure an Emergency Helicopter Landing Site and isolate compounds to the south of the route as part of the inner cordon.

“Whilst conducting these preliminary moves the point section initiated a Victim Operated IED resulting in a very serious casualty.

“During the casualty recovery that followed, the stretcher-bearers initiated a second VOIED that resulted in two personnel being killed outright and four other very serious casualties, one of whom later died from his wounds.

“The area was effectively an IED minefield, over-watched by the enemy and the section were stranded within it.

“Hughes and his team were called into this harrowing and chaotic situation to extract the casualties and recover the bodies. Speed was absolutely essential if further lives were not to be lost.

“Without specialist protective clothing in order to save time, Hughes set about clearing a path to the injured, providing constant reassurance that help was on its way.

“On reaching the first badly injured soldier he discovered a further VOIED within one metre of the casualty that, given their proximity, constituted a grave and immediate threat to the lives of all the casualties.

“Without knowing the location of the power source, but acutely attuned to the lethal danger he was facing and the overriding need to get medical attention to the casualties rapidly, Hughes calmly carried out a manual neutralisation of the device; any error would have proved instantly fatal.

“This was a ‘Category A’ action only conducted in one of two circumstances; a hostage scenario where explosives have been strapped to an innocent individual and a mass casualty event where not taking action is certain to result in further casualties.

“Both place the emphasis on saving other peoples’ lives even, if necessary, at the expense of the operator. It was an extraordinary act. With shots keeping the enemy at bay, Hughes coolly turned his attention to reaching the remaining casualties and retrieving the dead.

“Clearing a path forward he discovered two further VOIEDs and, twice more, carried out manual neutralisation.

“His utterly selfless action enabled all the casualties to be extracted and the bodies recovered. Even at this stage Hughes’ task was not finished. The Royal Engineers Search Team had detected a further four VOIEDs in the immediate area and stoically, like he has on over 80 other occasions in the last five months, he set about disposing of them too.

“Dealing with any form of IED is dangerous; to deal with seven VOIEDs linked in a single circuit, in a mass casualty scenario, using manual neutralisation techniques once, never mind three times, is the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan. That he did it without the security of specialist protective clothing serves even more to demonstrate his outstanding gallantry. Hughes is unequivocally deserving of the highest level of public recognition.”