Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications for the Legion d’Honneur have been withdrawn since July 2015 due to the death of the applicant; and what further steps his Department is taking to ensure that people nominated to receive that medal receive it as quickly as possible.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence has been made aware of 37 cases from the original list of approximately 3,300 names submitted to the French authorities where the veteran had died before their case could be submitted. In addition, the French Embassy has advised us of 14 cases in which the medal has been sent out but was returned to them specifically because the individual had died.

Under the terms of the arrangement with the French authorities, within which the normal timetable for processing awards has greatly reduced, the Ministry of Defence can submit 100 cases per week. Cases are normally submitted in order of their original submission to the Department; but we prioritise cases where we are notified of life-threatening or serious conditions.

Since the new system began in July last year we have sent 3,150 applications to the French Embassy and it should be remembered that this alone is more cases than would normally be dealt with by the Legion d’Honneur in all categories for a whole year. The French are also receiving applications from the other Allied nations that took part in D-Day, and the overall level of applications will clearly be far higher.