Well, drat....

L/Cpl Katrina Hodge

The winner of the Miss England 2008 beauty competition was chosen Friday, and - as far as I'm concerned, anyway - the wrong girl won.

For background, ZUI this article from the MOD Defence News:

Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge, 21, a Military Clerk with The Adjutant General Corps, is currently serving at Frimley Park Hospital.

LCpl Hodge won the title of Miss Tunbridge Wells after a friend secretly entered her picture in the hometown heats of the high-profile pageant. She will now compete for the Miss England title at the Grand Final in London on Friday 18 July 2008.

*******

In 2005 LCpl Hodge deployed to Iraq with 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment. It was during this tour that the part-time model received a commendation for bravery.

Trained as a female searcher, LCpl Hodge was on an operation in Basra when her patrol detected a suspected insurgent. On leaving the area the vehicle Katrina was travelling in was involved in an accident and the vehicle flipped over. The detainee used the opportunity to grab two rifles and threaten the soldiers.

LCpl Hodge described what happened next:

"I was in complete shock at first, the force of the accident caused our vehicle to roll over three times and threw us off guard.

"As I came round, the Iraqi suspect was standing over us with the rifles. I knew if I didn't act fast then our lives would be in danger. I punched him and the force startled him enough for me to retrieve the rifles from him."

And for the results, ZUI this article from MSN UK:

A 22-year-old graduate from Derby has become the third woman in her family to reign supreme in a beauty contest after being crowned Miss England 2008.

Laura Coleman, who also holds the title of Miss Derby, beat stiff competition from 50 other finalists on her way to winning the national beauty title, a mandatory sash and tiara and entrance into Miss World 2008 in Kiev, Ukraine later this year.

Laura’s coronation as a national beauty queen completes an unlikely triple crown for her family. Her mother, Dena Coleman, won 15 beauty pageants in the 1970s and was a Miss UK finalist in 1975 while her grandmother, Irene Patrick, is a former Miss Lovely Legs champion and was a pin-up girl for the British Army in the 1940s.

Drat. And double drat.


MOD photograph © Crown Copyright/MOD 2008.