Nichola Goddard

Canadian soldier

Captain Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard, MSM (May 2, 1980 – May 17, 2006) was the first Canadian woman to be killed in action since World War II, the first female Canadian Armed Forces member killed during combat duty, and the first Canadian female combat soldier to be killed on the front lines. She was also the 16th Canadian soldier killed in Canadian operations in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the first to mention the death, opening a Parliamentary debate hours later, stating that he wasn't certain it was a "first" female combat death for Canada, and that he would not release her name until her family had been notified. General (Ret'd) Richard Hillier, former chief of defence staff wrote in his autobiography A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War, that officials in the Prime Minister's Office ordered the military to hide the return to Canada of Captain Nichola Goddard because they did not want her flag draped coffin seen on the news. The family arranged for a public funeral at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Calgary, held on Friday May 26, 2006. It was later announced that her husband Jason Beam would be the first widower to receive the Memorial Cross. The Memorial Cross (also known as the Silver Cross) has traditionally been presented to widows and mothers of Canadian war dead. After Goddard's death, policies have changed on the traditions of presenting the Memorial Cross to widows or mothers of the ones killed. Now, members of the Canadian Forces are required to choose who will receive the Memorial Cross(es) (a maximum of three).