1. Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid, GC was a British Army bomb disposal expert who was killed in action in the Afghanistan conflict.
11 Facts About Olaf Schmid
1. 2.
Olaf Schmid was born on 11 June 1979 in Truro, Cornwall, to a German mother, Barbara, and a Swedish father, Hans-Jorg Olaf Schmid, he was brother to Torben and half brother to Gregory.
3.
Olaf Schmid was educated at Penair School in Truro, and was a choir boy in Truro Cathedral Choir, ultimately becoming head chorister.
4.
Olaf Schmid lived in Winchester, Hampshire, with his wife Christina and his step-son Laird.
5.
Olaf Schmid joined the British Army in 1996, enlisting in the Royal Logistic Corps and shortly afterwards he applied to train as a bomb disposal specialist.
6.
Olaf Schmid served in Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and Kosovo before being sent to Afghanistan in June 2009.
7.
Olaf Schmid arrived during Operation Panther's Claw in Helmand Province.
8.
On 31 October 2009 Olaf Schmid was killed instantly when a devise he was defusing in Sangin, Helmand Province exploded.
9.
On 21 September 2010, his widow, Christina Olaf Schmid, was a contributor in a programme in BBC Radio 4's Soul Music series about Gabriel Faure's Requiem with conductor David Willcocks.
10.
On 18 March 2010, Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff announced that Olaf Schmid would be posthumously awarded the George Cross, and presented a framed copy of the citation to Olaf Schmid's widow during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Honourable Artillery Company in the City of London.
11.
Olaf Schmid attended the ceremony with her son Laird and her parents.