October 13, 2020 10.56 am This story is over 41 months old

Lincoln soldier gets MBE for COVID-19 test training

Honouring his work fighting coronavirus
David Hemmings from Lincoln helped train soldiers to collect coronavirus test swabs.
By Local Democracy Reporter

A soldier from Lincoln who helped design and deliver coronavirus testing training for the military has been given an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Corporal David Hemmings, 32, was part of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment team that trained armed forces personnel to safely collect swabs before sending them for testing.

David, based at Kendrew Barracks in Rutland, wasn’t the only Lincolnshire resident to be honoured by the Queen’s Birthday Honours, with Stamford consultant Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam rewarded for his frontline work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The awards were originally due to be published in June, but were postponed to consider any nominations for people playing key roles in the fight against coronavirus.

David said: “I was in utter shock when I was told I was to receive the MBE.

“When I saw on the news how many people had been tested at the mobile testing sites run by the military, I was really proud because I’d helped achieve that, but I never expected to receive an award. I’m not sure I deserve it.

“Nothing we do in the Army is done by one individual, it’s always a team effort.

“We were given the training objectives we needed to achieve and had to come up with the lesson plans from scratch.

“We took the Army template that we would normally use to deliver lesson plans and battle exercises and applied it to this.

David added: “Safety was always going to be the main priority. I had to ensure the training made it clear how to safely change personal protection equipment, so we didn’t spread the infection.

“In the first week we trained around 48 people a day and then went on to train and validate more instructors so they could deliver training.”