Lisa Head

Lisa Jade Head
Born 30 November 1981
Huddersfield, England
Died 19 April 2011
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  British Army
Years of service 2006–2011
Rank Captain
Unit 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment

Captain Lisa Jade Head (30 November 1981 – 19 April 2011)[1] was a British army officer. She was the first female bomb disposal officer ever to be killed on operations.[2] She died on 19 April 2011 at the age of 29, having sustained serious injuries on active service in Afghanistan. At the time of her death, Captain Head was the first female officer and the second British servicewoman to die in Afghanistan since 2001, after Sarah Bryant, and the 364th member of the armed forces in total.[3]

Born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, she attended Greenhead College and studied human biology at the University of Huddersfield before attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.[4] She served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an air transport liaison officer with the Royal Logistic Corps before being transferred to 321 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squadron, 11 Explosive Ordnance Department, Royal Logistic Corps, with whom she served in Northern Ireland. She was deployed to Afghanistan on 27 March 2011. She was a bomb disposal specialist and had achieved the "High Threat IED Operators" status indicating great expertise.[3][5][6]

She was mortally injured in Nahr-e-Saraj in Helmand Province on 18 April 2011, 22 days after arriving in Afghanistan for the second time, while attempting to disable a cluster of improvised explosive devices, which defence sources said had been placed to catch out a bomb disposal expert. She disabled one device, but was hit when a second device in the chain went off. She was evacuated by helicopter to Camp Bastion in Lashkar Gah, from where she was flown back to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. She died there the following day.[1][6]

Her funeral was held on 6 May 2011 at Huddersfield Parish Church. A guard of honour from her regiment lined the steps of the church at the funeral procession and carried her coffin into the church.[7] More than 1,000 people attended the funeral, including family, friends, military personnel and residents of Huddersfield.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Captain Lisa Jade Head dies of wounds sustained in Afghanistan, MOD, published 21 April 2011, retrieved 21 April 2011
  2. ^ Courage of woman bomb disposal expert killed defusing Taliban explosive, The Mirror, published 21 April 2011, retrieved 23 April 2011.
  3. ^ a b Tributes paid to bomb disposal expert Capt Lisa Head, BBC, published 21 April 2011, retrieved 21 April 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Huddersfield says farewell to Capt Lisa Head". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 7 May 2011. http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2011/05/07/huddersfield-says-farewell-to-capt-lisa-head-leave-your-tribute-hear-86081-28649790/. Retrieved 7 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Tribute to female army bomb expert, Belfast Telegraph, published 21 April 2011, retrieved 21 April 2011.
  6. ^ a b Bomb disposal expert becomes second female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan after being blown up by homemade IED, Daily Mail, published 21 April 2011, retrieved 21 April 2011.
  7. ^ "Captain Lisa Head funeral: mourners honour female bomb disposal expert". The Daily Telegraph. 7 May 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8497623/Captain-Lisa-Head-funeral-mourners-honour-female-bomb-disposal-expert.html. Retrieved 7 May 2011.