An unlikely feminist hero

Gary Thompson, at 51 the oldest British serviceman to die in Afghanistan or Iraq, went back to the RAF as a reservist after a career in business. Why? In February he told a local newspaper:

I have five daughters, three of whom are at university. I want women in Afghanistan to be given the same opportunities that my daughters have had. It means I can come back and say I have played my part in trying to make that happen.

Thompson was killed, with fellow airman Graham Livingstone, 23, when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Daman district, Afghanistan.

Gary Thompson was the same age as I am when he died. For all my passionate support for women's rights, I doubt if I could do what he did. Sometimes feminist heroes are to be found in the unlikeliest places.