The widow of a paratrooper killed after single-handedly rushing a Taliban position under heavy gunfire has accepted his posthumous Victoria Cross.
Lorena Budd, 23, said she was "enormously proud" of her late husband Corporal Bryan Budd, 29, of the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment.
It is the first time the VC - Britain's highest award for bravery in the face of enemy attack - has been awarded posthumously for a quarter of a century.
Cpl Budd, of Ripon, North Yorkshire, twice led audacious assaults into the heart of enemy gunfire in the Sangin district of southern Afghanistan last year. On July 27 he spearheaded an attack on two gunmen on the roof of a building to allow a wounded colleague to be evacuated for life-saving treatment.
During an engagement on August 20, with "withering" fire forcing his comrades to take cover, Cpl Budd continued the assault alone, continuing to rush the Taliban position despite his own wounds. His body was later found surrounded by those of three Taliban fighters.
After receiving the VC on his behalf from the Queen in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Mrs Budd said he died doing the job he loved.
She said: "I am enormously proud of him and it has been an emotional day. The award of the Victoria Cross recognises his conspicuous gallantry, inspirational leadership and supreme valour. Tragically, acting in the highest traditions of the Parachute Regiment, he made the ultimate sacrifice by laying down his life."
Cpl Budd left two daughters, Isabelle, two, and Imogen, who was born in September shortly after her father's death.
Mrs Budd said her late husband was a "loving husband and father", adding: "He will always be missed, but his memory continues to live on."
She attended the Palace with Cpl Budd's stepfather, Trevor Girdham, and the paratrooper's sister Tracy and his brother Stephen.
