Britain's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, has been awarded for the first time in 23 years to an army private who saved the lives of 30 comrades in Iraq.
Johnson Beharry, 25, is the first living soldier since 1965 to receive the distinction, created in 1856 to honour soldiers of the British Empire during the Crimean War who showed gallantry in the face of enemy attack.
He is also the only the fourth black serviceman to win the award.
Beharry, who was born in Grenada and only immigrated to Britain in 1999, earned the Victoria Cross for two separate acts of bravery under fire in the town of Amara, near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, last year.
In the first, he was struck by bullet fire while guiding an armoured convoy through a major ambush in May. A month later, he rescued further soldiers but suffered serious head wounds in a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) assault that left him in a coma.
Beharry, who is still recovering from his injuries, said he was speechless when he was told about the award.
"Maybe I was brave, I don't know. I think anyone else could do the same thing," he said.
He was among around 140 soldiers bestowed honours on Thursday for British operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland and several African missions between April and November 2004.
Seven awards were also given for gallant and distinguished service during serious flooding in England last August.
Army Chief of Staff General Sir Michael Jackson praised Beharry's "extraordinary story of... courage".
"He risked his own life, not once but twice, to save the lives of his comrades. A remarkable story," Jackson told BBC radio.
He said it was not certain Beharry, of the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, would continue in the army because he was still recovering from severe wounds.
In the first incident on May 1, Beharry maneuvered an armoured vehicle at the head of a six-vehicle convoy that was under heavy attack to rescue a foot patrol that was in trouble.
He delivered wounded soldiers, including his platoon commander and gunner, to safety even after the vehicle was hit by an RPG, breaking down a barrier and providing a path for the rest of the convoy to follow.
A few weeks later, on June 11, another convoy that Beharry was leading was ambushed and a grenade detonated six inches (15 centimetres) from his head.
Even while blood from a head injury obscured his vision, he drove through the ambush and manoeuvred the vehicle to a place where his crew could be safely extracted.
"Despite receiving a serious head injury... his level-headed actions in the face of heavy and accurate enemy fire at short range again almost certainly saved the lives of his crew," according to his citation.
The citation praises Beharry's "repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valour... in the face of relentless enemy action."
Beharry, married and living in London, is one of just 14 living recipients of the Victoria Cross, which was last awarded in the Falklands campaign.
Only 1,355, all made from the bronze of Russian cannons captured in the Crimea, have ever been awarded, most of them posthumously.
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