The Queen decorated me for bravery. Then Hermer put me through hell

The proudest day of Brian Wood’s life was receiving the Military Cross, the medal pinned to his chest by the late Queen at Buckingham Palace. The investiture was held in April 2005, less than a year after L/Cpl Wood had shown extraordinary courage in a firefight with Iraqi insurgents – members of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army – who had ambushed British troops at the Danny Boy checkpoint in southern Iraq.