In total, 107 service personnel were honoured yesterday, with many tales of remarkable bravery including: an officer singled out as "the principal architect of an extraordinary momentum of transition in security responsibility" to the Afghans; a sapper who worked to clear a supply route of homemade bombs after one of his colleagues died and four others were badly injured trying; and a captain who fought in more than 50 high intensity battles and who returned to Afghanistan despite almost dying three years ago when his neck was shredded with shrapnel.