Rifles corporal is first winner of Army award recognising excellence in junior ranks
A corporal from The Rifles has become the first recipient of the Fitzgibbon Award, a new British Army prize created to recognise excellence in the junior ranks.
Corporal Luke O'Neill, a section commander in B Company, 1st Battalion The Rifles, was presented with a commemorative watch by the Chief of the General Staff and the Army Sergeant Major at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
The award recognises outstanding performance and leadership at junior rank level and is the first of its kind in the Army.
Cpl O'Neill was selected from strong competition, with 25 nominations submitted from within 1st (UK) Division alone.
He received a custom-made watch from Chief of the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker, engraved with their name and presented with a special citation.
Sir Roly said it was an honour to hand over the award to the first recipient and joked that he does not think he would qualify to also be the second, but that he should try.
The 31-year-old corporal is based in Chepstow, is from Birmingham and is married with a child.
He began his Army career with 2 Rifles in Northern Ireland before attending ITC Catterick and later joining 1 Rifles.
The Fitzgibbon Award is named after Andrew Fitzgibbon, the youngest recipient of the Victoria Cross, and places deliberate emphasis on recognising excellence in the junior ranks.
He was 15 when he won the VC in 1860 after going under fire during the Second Opium War, an imperial war in which Britain and France attacked Qing China to force open its markets and impose unequal treaties in defence of Western commercial interests, including the opium trade.
The prize was launched this year by the Army Sergeant Major, WO1 John Miller, to honour the best soldiers and junior non-commissioned officers up to the rank of corporal.
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