Truro soldier Olaf Schmid added to city war memorial (From Falmouth Packet)

Truro soldier Olaf Schmid added to city war memorial

4:53pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010

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A plaque was dedicated on the city’s war memorial to bomb disposal expert Olaf Schmid this afternoon – the first name to be added for more than two decades.

Staff Sergeant “Oz” Schmid was killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan last October while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb on the final day of his tour of duty.

The Truro-born soldier with the Royal Logistic Corps is the first name to be added to the city’s war memorial since the Falklands conflict in the 1980s.

The other names all relate to soldiers who were killed in the first and second world wars.

Money for the plaque has been donated by Truro city council, the Truro branch of the Royal British Legion and the taxi drivers whose rank is near the memorial – they raised £310 towards the total.

The plaque simply reads “Afghanistan 2009, Olaf SC Schmid.”

Among the people at its dedication was his brother Torben.

He stood alongside Royal British Legion standard bearers for a brief service led by the Truro RBL chaplain Father Gilmore McDermott.

Staff Sgt Schmid was given a full military funeral at Truro Cathedral last November, where his widow Christina led the tributes.

On Thursday, similar scenes will be played out at the cathedral once again – this time to remember Captain Daniel Read from St Columb Road, another bomb disposal expert with the Royal Logistics Corps, who was also killed while on duty in Afghanistan.

He was killed by an explosion in the Musa Qaleh area of Helmand Province last month.

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