War veteran in 60-year pension battle defeated

David Gibbs served in the RAF during the Second World War at an Officer Training Unit in Dundee where he had the horrific task of removing the dead or dying pilots from the wreckage of crashed aircraft.

His job was to salvage valuable equipment from the planes and said the horrendous experience of working in the immediate aftermath of a crash, surrounded by blood and body parts, left him with mental health problems.

The 87-year-old, from Leeds, has been fighting to have his military pension – which was only given to him in 1986 after a long-running legal battle – backdated to 1944 when he was discharged on medical grounds.

Mr Gibbs believes the MoD owes him more than 250,000.

But he has now received a letter stating a tribunal could find no grounds to challenge the decision not to award him the backdated funds.

He said: "I am so embittered – I am now 87 years old and came out of the forces in 1944. They said I could not have a pension because the problems I suffered were not attributable to war.

"If they have to pay me back what they should have paid, plus interest, it would be well over 250,000."

Mr Gibbs wanted to be an air-gunner in the Second World War but a medical revealed he had a problem with his eye, so instead he was stationed in Dundee.

Because the pilots there were still training they "made mistakes" which sometimes had devastating results.

"Many of the lads struggled to land the planes. When they crashed I had to bring back anything I could find that could be used. The only things I had to help me were a bucket and wooden tongs to pick out bits of body parts from the wreckage."

Mr Gibbs said in 1944 he suffered a seizure and after a period of treatment in hospital he was discharged as unfit for duty.

He was diagnosed as having obsessional neurosis – an illness not recognised at the time as being attributable to his work in the military – and therefore he was denied a military pension.

He embarked on a long legal battle until in 1986 he was awarded a pension after it was recognised he was suffering from a personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder and enduring personality change – as a result of his experiences.

Doctors also explained he should not have been allowed to join up in the first place but the MoD have refused to backdate the pension.

His case has been fought by solicitor Jenny Jones, of Richardson and Co, who said the ruling against Mr Gibbs "goes against natural justice".

She said: "This latest letter is just more of the same from the MoD and I am in the process of drawing up a skeleton argument to counter to it.

"They are saying that they do not have the jurisdiction to overturn a High Court ruling in 2001, stating that they have no grounds to challenge the Secretary of States' decision not to backdate the pension.

"We must now outline our reasons why the appeal should not be struck out."

Ms Jones admitted this is the last chance for Mr Gibbs but said she is confident they have strong grounds to challenge the MoD and believes if they were successful it could "open the floodgates" to other veterans.

She said: "I think we have a good case, the whole situation that Mr Gibbs is in just goes against natural justice.

"I am hoping that with what we put forward a judge somewhere will see that Mr Gibbs has a case.

"The MoD is unwilling to open the floodgates to other people who are in the same situation."

According to the charity Combat Stress one in four soldiers will suffer some form of mental illness and one in 20 will be diagnosed with PTSD.

Last month, the Yorkshire Post reported how a letter to Mr Gibbs revealed that scores of soldiers were missing out on benefits because of Government guidelines that say they do not need to be assessed by doctors with psychiatric training.

The letter stated specialist psychiatric expertise is not essential for deciding how much soldiers should receive. Doctors responsible for assessing medically discharged soldiers, including Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, are the same who assess every medical benefits case.