Terror attack Major given George Cross
A RETIRED special forces Major who repeatedly risked his life to save 200 people during a terror attack received the George Cross from the Queen yesterday.
Dominic Troulan, 54, who works in risk management in East Africa, stepped in when jihadi fundamentalists struck a shopping centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Armed with a 9mm pistol, he raced to the scene by motorbike and rescued a friend’s wife and daughter after receiving a phone call asking for help.
Over the next six hours he returned a dozen times to lead survivors to safety as four Al-Shabab fundamentalists killed 67 people on a rampage with machine guns and grenades. He exchanged fire with them twice.
His actions in 2013 saw him become the first civilian in 41 years to win the George Cross for bravery out of uniform.
Mr Troulan, understood to have been attached to special forces during his career in the Royal Marines and then the Parachute Regiment, dedicated his award to those who suffered in the attack and all victims of terrorism. The retired officer, originally from Banbury, Oxfordshire, still keeps in touch with some of those he saved.
He said: “The horrific carnage that the terrorists managed to conduct in pretty short order really will live with all of us that were involved there, both the hostages, the victims’ families and extended friends who were actually in there and saw it first-hand.”
The George Cross was last awarded to a civilian in 1976 when it went to John Clements. The teacher died rescuing pupils of Sherrardswood School, in Welwyn Garden City, Herts, from a burning hotel in Sappada, Italy. Dominic Troulan with his George Cross yesterday and left, the scene at the shopping mall in Nairobi when terrorists attacked in 2013