I receive hundreds of emails a week, from many of the 65,000 residents living in Northampton North, and many of these are from residents seeking my help on matters of personal crisis for them which require multiple actions from me to try to help. I cannot of course always succeed in resolving issues, but I always do my best to help where I can, and as speedily as I can.
The sort of personal issues I am asked to help with vary considerably, and range from housing needs to immigration, from anti-social behaviour complaints to benefits problems.
However I recently intervened in a rare and unusual case: helping a World War Two D-Day veteran to obtain the medals he was entitled to 73 years ago, but never received.
About two months ago, just before Christmas, a constituent of mine aged well into his 90’s approached me to see if I could help him in obtaining World War Two medals that he felt sure he was entitled to. Immediately after the Second World War a paperwork problem had prevented him from collecting the medals. I am a great supporter of HM Armed Forces and I believe that we all owe a debt to the genuinely heroic people who, like my constituent, risked their lives for the freedoms that we so often take for granted today. I was very happy to intervene on his behalf.
Over the past couple of months I have been working with the Ministry of Defence on my constituent’s behalf, writing letters and making phone calls, and on a couple of occasions I also spoke personally to the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon about this case.
Then last week my constituent received the following:
The France and Germany Star, which was awarded to British subjects who served in the Second World War specifically for service in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands or Germany and the adjacent sea areas between 6th June 1944 and 8th May 1945;
The 1939-1945 Star, which was given to subjects of the British Commonwealth for service in the Second World War.
Also we have been told that he will be entitled to the Legion D’Honneur (Legion of Honour) which is the highest honour given by the French authorities and was given to nationals of other countries for their participation in operational duties in France.
I spoke to my constituent on the telephone a couple of times last week after he had received the medals and he was very pleased.
The local press were very interested in his story and he gave an interview last week to BBC Radio Northampton. You can also read his full story online in the Chronicle and Echo newspaper here: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/world-war-two-veteran-claims-his-medals-after-73-years-and-discovers-he-is-owed-another-1-7850247.