A former Ulster soldier has won the longest battle of his life — against the military’s top brass For the ex-UDR man from east Belfast has just been awarded a medal for his stalwart services on dangerous patrols at the height of Ulster’s Troubles — 14 YEARS after he first applied for it!

“It’s a great relief,” said the stubborn ex-soldier who blamed “nit-picking” Army chiefs for preventing him receiving the medal sooner.

“It really galls me that it has taken so long to get a medal I was entitled to all along, but I’m glad its over.

“I have to thank (First Minister) Peter Robinson MP who has fought my corner right from the start and who never gave up.”

He also praised NIO Security Minister Paul Goggins who intervened in the case at the request of the first minister.

The ex-part-time soldier — who asked not to be named for security reasons — was one of many UDR veterans who were frustrated in their efforts to receive the Accumulated Campaign Service Medal (ACSM) because their early service records had been destroyed.

The medal is normally awarded to soldiers who have served in 1,080 days of aggregated service in various campaigns from Northern Ireland to Afghanistan. For part-timers who served in the UDR and RIR soldiers, the qualifying criteria is 1,000 days.

But it emerged that the Army’s records on UDR members prior to 1975 had been destroyed.

The east Belfast man, who joined the regiment in 1972 and served for 13 years, said: “When I sent off my medal application, I included letters from my former company commander, platoon commander and warrant officer, all stating that I would have served more than 1,000 (days).”

Those endorsements satisfied local Army medal boards, but the Army’s medals board in London blocked his application saying there was “insufficient evidence” to confirm his entitlement.

The MoD suggested disgruntled soldiers like the east Belfast man obtained their National Insurance contribution records as evidence of service.

But there was shock and dismay when the Inland Revenue in Newcastle Upon Tyne announced it had NO records of Northern Ireland contributions paid for UDR members prior to 1975.

Peter Robinson was one of a number of local MPs who publicly took up the soldiers’ cases which hit the headlines in 2000 and 2001.

The issue rumbled on for years, but last month there was a breakthrough in the case of the east Belfast veteran when Security Minister Paul Goggins wrote to Peter Robinson MP saying his case had been referred to an extraordinary meeting of the Army’s medals board.

And on November 12, the ex-soldier finally received the long-awaited medal from the MoD.

“It’s all been about the principle of the matter — I knew I was entitled to this medal,” said the ex-UDR man, who told how he left his family night after night in the early 1970s to serve in

dangerous border areas for a paltry £3.57 per night.

“It’s been a long campaign. But I’ve been one of the lucky ones because I kept plugging away.

“I’m really grateful to Peter Robinson and Paul Goggins. I went to other (Ulster Unionist) politicians, but Peter Robinson was the only one who really did anything — he went into every nook and cranny.

“And I’m grateful to NIO Minister Paul Goggins who took the case right to front door of the medals boards.”

sgordon@belfasttelegraph.co.uk