Double celebration as Shropshire soldier honoured
A medal presentation ceremony for hero troops just back from the front line in Afghanistan turned into a double celebration for a Shropshire soldier.
Sergeant Andy Biggin, from the Royal Military Police, collected both the Operational Service Medal and a Long Service and Good Conduct award for 15 years exemplary service at the ceremony yesterday.
Watching the presentations were proud wife Sarah, 31, two-year-old daughter Gracie and her parents David and Maureen Hollis, from Ketley Bank, Telford.
Sgt Biggin is stationed at Donnington in Telford with 174 Provost Company Royal Military Police, and returned home last week from a six-month tour of duty during which he was based at Kandahar in Helmand Province.
The 33-year-old said: "It was the first tour I have been on since getting married and since Gracie was born and so it was hard emotionally.
"The exemplary service award is an accolade not many people are going to receive and to collect it at a homecoming medal ceremony in front of my family meant a great deal to me."
It was the latest landmark in a remarkable love story for the couple who first dated as teenagers before going their separate ways when she joined the Royal Navy and he signed up with the Army.
He got in touch while serving in Germany nine years later after noticing an entry from Sarah on Facebook and 12 months after that they were married.
The medal ceremony took place at the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas yesterday alongside the Military Police memorial.
The company was primarily made up of 174 Provost Company but also included 20 Military Police from Aldershot, nine members of the Territorial Army and six RAF police, one of whom, Corporal Brent McCarthy from Telford, aged 25, was killed by members of the Afghan police force.
By John Scott
