RAF veteran banned for being gay seeks £50k from MoD

An RAF veteran who was court martialled in 1966 over his sexuality has said he wished he "didn't have to live through it again" as he fights for a payout that he missed by a matter of months.

Chris Dennis, from Bagshot, Surrey, was discharged from the air force months before being gay was decriminalised in the UK, meaning he is not eligible to receive £50,000 in compensation from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Dennis, now 80, said his fight was now an emotional decision to allow him to get reparations for the decision.

The MoD said it "deeply regrets the treatment of LGBT serving personnel between 1967 and 2000, which was wholly unacceptable".

The former RAF radar technician said if he attends a Remembrance Day parade, he is not allowed to wear a beret and cap badge, adding: "I feel out of it."

Looking back on being court martialled, he said: "The police said they weren't going to take any action as the law was going to change, but the SIB [Special Investigation Branch] indicated to me that I could have had an ordinary discharge if I were to name everyone I knew of [who was gay].

"I wish I didn't have to live through it again. I wish I could get angry, but anger doesn't do any good."

Dennis, who was one of the people lining the streets for Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, said he had been investigated by the military police in 1966 after being found with another man in a car.

After leaving the RAF, he went on to work making radars for boats but said he was then told the company could not employ him as he could not receive security clearance.

In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised private homosexual acts between men aged over 21.

The MoD's LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme awards those affected by the ban £50,000 if they were discharged from the armed forces – but only if they served between 27 July 1967 and 11 January 2000.

An MoD spokesperson said: "We are working to process applications as quickly as possible and have increased the size of the payments team and the number of Independent Panel sittings.

"Applications are now being processed in the order received, with priority given to elderly applicants, those with serious health conditions and those in serious financial hardship to ensure timely support for those most in need."

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