A 91-YEAR-old war veteran who claims he is owed tens of thousands of pounds in compensation from the military took his campaign to Parliament today.

Decorated former soldier Major Richard Perkins, who was mentioned in dispatches during the Second World War, mounted a one-man protest to draw attention to his campaign.

Major Perkins saw service behind Japanese lines in Burma in 1944 as part of the special unit known as the Chindits and later served during the Malayan emergency in the late 1950s.

It was there that he suffered the mental breakdown which is at the heart of his complaint.

In the mid 1990s the Government discovered hundreds of veterans who had been medically discharged from the Army had been wrongly taxed on their pensions and eventually paid out millions of pounds in rebates and compensation.

Maj Perkins appeared to be one of those due to benefit, but problems arose when the ministry claimed he had not been discharged on medical grounds when he left The Royal Leicestershire Regiment in 1959 and was, therefore, not eligible.

The father-of-four, of Lastingham, near Pickering, North Yorkshire, argued for five years that the mental breakdown he suffered in Malaya did constitute a medical discharge and was eventually given a £20,000 rebate payment following an appeal tribunal hearing.

But he believes he is also entitled to compensation amounting to around £86,000 for the loss of use of this money over the past half-decade.

Speaking outside the House of Commons with placards detailing his grievance, he said he hoped MPs would come to listen to his story and take up the case.

"My aim is to get them to stand up in Parliament to find out any real reason the Ministry of Defence can claim for not paying the compensation thats owed to me and is increasing by the day."

He said he did not know whether anyone else was in the same position.

"There might be one; there might be 100. People do not often know they are entitled to money because the MoD does not tell them. They tried to hide my case."

The money would enable him to leave something to his children, he said.

"They are liable to receive the benefit of an overdraft - I would like them to have something," he said.