WW2 Normandy veteran's son 'insulted' by pension repayment demand

A Normandy veteran's son feels "insulted" by the Ministry of Defence after it told his mother to repay £66 of a war pension.

Chris Edwards' late father, David, of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, was shot during World War Two but returned to the front line to fight on.

Mr Edwards claimed his father only found he was owed the pension more than 40 years after the war.

The MoD said it was looking into the details of the case.

Mr Edwards, of Aberthaw, in the Vale of Glamorgan, said the request was "beyond belief".

In a letter to Mr Edwards' widow Diane in August, the MoD said it had a "duty to protect public funds and all overpayments are treated as recoverable".

Mr Edwards, 63, said he understood the need to protect public money but questioned why a letter was sent to a 91-year-old grieving widow.

His father died in November 2020 aged 95.

"Dad went to the front line, was shot, came back and recovered, returned to the front line and then served for 30 years as a police officer after the war," he said.

His father, who had a school in France named after him, only discovered he could claim money after Diane read a magazine article on the topic more than 40 years after the war.

Mr Edwards said: "I came up with this figure. If it was 220-odd pounds over a 44-year period, it's over £100,000.

"That wasn't given, so why ask my dad for 60-odd pounds when perhaps he should have been getting his war disablement pension a long time before?"

The MoD was asked what attempts were made to contact those wounded during service.

It said no records existed that show the numbers disabled during World War Two.

The MoD said it offered bereaved families support through numerous services.

A spokesman said: "We are looking into the details of this particular case and will engage directly with those concerned."

Mr Edwards said he hoped raising the matter publicly would encourage other veterans to claim what they were owed.

"My dad would say, 'it's not about the money, it's about the morality of the fact that you send young people to go and do a very difficult, dirty, horrible job'," he said.

"This is a dying generation. There are not many of them left.

"I wonder how many others missed out on these payments after the war, or how many other families have been pursued."