Veteran's medal protest over MPs

Kyt · May 21, 2009

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Veteran's medal protest over MPs

An 87-year-old woman has protested over the MPs' expenses scandal by threatening to return the medals she and her husband won in World War II.

Nina MacAulay, originally from Argyll and now living in Sutherland, said she would have taken them to Buckingham Palace if she had been well enough.

The pensioner and her late husband served in the RAF.

Mrs MacAulay said funds spent on politicians should have been used to better protect Armed Forces personnel.

She said: "My attitude is, from a military viewpoint we are killing young people and training them to kill others, and at the same time diverting funds away from them to pay for MPs' gardening.

"These soldiers represent the best in human endeavour, but these appalling people who put us into war then just sit back."

Mrs MacAulay, from Drumbeg, added: "There is also this whole contrast with ordinary people losing their jobs, their homes, their futures and their children's futures, while these guys are pocketing it."

During the war, she was with the Women's Royal Air Force processing aerial photography.

She said her medals include the 1939-45 Star - a campaign medal of the British Commonwealth for service - and a similar British Commonwealth accolade - the France and Germany Star - having been posted for a spell in Germany.

Her RAF medic husband's honours include a Pacific Star.

Mr MacAulay, who died in 2003 aged 83, was held in a Japanese prisoner of war camp for three and a half years and was told that, as a result, he would die before he was 50 and never have children.

However, the couple married in 1946 and went on to have two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mrs MacAulay, who is originally from the Argyll village of Kirn, added: "I don't think these medals any longer represent what they were created for.

"Frankly, given the choice, I would not go to war now."
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Plea for protest widow to keep medals - Press & Journal

An Army veteran has pleaded with a Highland widow to think again about her planned protest against Britain’s “money-grubbing” politicians.

Bob Kelsey, whose 29-year military career began at the age of 14 as a boy bugler in the Royal Marines, urged Nina MacAulay to reconsider her decision to return eight war medals to the Queen.

Mrs MacAulay, 87, of Cnoc Glas, Drumbeg, Sutherland, said the “high moral principles” of the era in which the medals were awarded to her and her late husband, Iain, did not exist in today’s Westminster, making them “no longer fit for purpose”.

Former Devonshire Regiment soldier Mr Kelsey, 78, said he sympathised with Mrs MacAulay’s frustration but added that she should treasure the mementos that she and her husband had earned for “fighting for their country”.

He said: “I would ask her not to hand her medals back, and give them to her children or grandchildren instead.

“She should be proud of what she and her husband achieved because it is people like them who saved this country.”

However, Mrs MacAulay won support yesterday from Elgin woman Alison Thompson, whose husband, Ian, has served in Afghanistan and the Balkans as an RAF technician.

Mrs Thompson, of Argus Place, said: “I admire her stand and she has made a brave decision to return the medals.”

Mr Kelsey, of Lochiel Gardens, Inverness, was too young to serve in World War II but signed up with the Devonshire Regiment in 1949 aged 18.

He went on to serve in Malaya and Kenya, receiving medals for each campaign, before leaving the Army in 1973 after reaching the rank of colour sergeant.

He said: “My medals mean everything to me and I will one day give them to my children. I take pride in my regiment and my medals. They mean I can hold my head up high.”

Mr Kelsey, who has been a member of the Royal British Legion Scotland since 1979 and is a former committee member of the Inverness branch, said: “I’m sure that other members would agree that Mrs MacAulay should retain her medals.

“I fear that if she did return them, MPs would treat it as a joke. They wouldn’t take it seriously.”

Iain MacAulay, who died in 2003 aged 83, was held in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp for three-and-a-half years. He weighed just five stone when he was released, was malnourished and was told he would not live to see his 50th birthday.

Mr MacAulay was awarded five medals during his career as an RAF medic, including the Pacific Star and a long-service and good-conduct medal. The Queen presented him with his military MBE insignia.

Both he and his wife also received 1939-45 medals and stars, with Mrs MacAulay, a former member of the Women’s Royal Air Force, who was employed to process aerial photographs, being awarded a France and Germany Star.

Speaking yesterday, Mrs MacAulay said: “I understand someone saying that I should keep the medals. Of course I am very proud of them, particularly the MBE, which was awarded by the Queen.

“But at the moment I’m still hopping mad and won’t be changing my mind.”

In a letter to the Press and Journal, Mrs MacAulay said she was “saddened, depressed and disgusted” by the MPs’ expenses fiasco.
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Antipodean Andy · May 21, 2009

Not sure how to comment on this but I can imagine someone, after making sacrifices to serve and defend a way of life, despairing when those who lead take advantage of the system.

I think I avoided politics there!

spidge · May 22, 2009

Antipodean Andy said: ↑

Not sure how to comment on this but I can imagine someone, after making sacrifices to serve and defend a way of life, despairing when those who lead take advantage of the system.

I think I avoided politics there!
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I think you did as well.

My thoughts:

They are her medals which she is free to do with what she will!

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Veteran's medal protest over MPs

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