Toby Neal – The strange story of Bill of the Big Medal
The Americans have a law against it. It's called the Stolen Valor Act.
The dismissal of the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire for making up a military career calls to mind the case of Bill of the Big Medal.
Bill, which is not his real name, was a war veteran who I came across many years ago and struck me as unusual among that breed, as he bragged. He had won that Big Medal and let us know about it.
He liked self-promotion but there was an occasion that I didn't think it warranted a story. So he got in touch with the then editor to complain that a young pup of a reporter wasn't showing a war veteran respect.
You don't question a war veteran, do you? But there were rumours that his war service wasn't quite as he presented it.
Then there was the book. All about him and his wartime exploits. Bravery and heroism. Again, unusually, war veteran Bill had not kept any of his service documentation, so it all came direct from him, working closely with the author.
There were warning signs. One of the things Bill fed the author turned out to be the script of a BBC radio drama, complete with stage directions. Bill had an explanation. It was, he said, just to show him "what things were like."
