ZEICHNER TAKES D-DAY MEDAL DELAY TO PARLIAMENT

23rd July, 2015

Cambridge D-Day hero Ken Bright’s battle to get the top French honour, the Legion d’Honneur, was taken to parliament as MP Daniel Zeichner raised his case in a special Westminster debate.

Despite being offered the award, bureaucratic delays on both sides of the channel mean Mr Bright (92) and other veterans have not yet received their medals.

Mr Zeichner urged Mark Lancaster, the Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans to resolve Ken and other veterans’ cases speedily.

The minister admitted there had been an unexpected number of applications with over 3000 veterans applying and at first just one person in the Ministry of Defence assigned to deal with the cases.

However he pledged to do everything possible to get “a speedy resolution” and reported that the British Government would resubmit one hundred outstanding cases a week to the French authorities until the backlog was cleared.

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “I felt deeply privileged when Ken and his wife Bunnie shared their wartime memories with me when we met. Ken told me about his time as a member of the Royal Navy’s Landing Craft Infantry and how he ferried troops during the D-Day landings.

We are all forever indebted to the very brave men and women of Ken’s generation who fought to keep the world free from tyranny so that we could all live freely, peacefully and democratically in today’s Europe.

Ken told me he wants to show his medal to his great grandchildren -; so I’m determined to do everything I can get his medal to him as soon as possible and will continue to keep up the pressure on the British and French Governments.”