Warrant Officer Class 1 Kim Spencer Hughes, GC (born 12 September 1979) is a British Army bomb disposal expert (Ammunition Technician) who was awarded the George Cross as a staff sergeant for gallant acts carried out in the Afghanistan conflict.
The posthumous award of the GC to Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid was announced at the same time.
[2] His citation states that he carried out "the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan".
[2] Hughes was born in Germany, where his father was serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and returned to England in 1985.
He has since published an autobiographical account of his experiences in Afghanistan, Painting the Sand,[5] plus a thriller novel, Operation Certain Death.