Toby Neal – The strange story 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."

The book was somewhat vague on certain details, not that anybody could really have checked up on things in that era before the internet.

If anything was queried, Bill's first response was to say a war veteran was not being respected, with further stages being to invoke solicitors and accusing his doubters of some wrongdoing.

It was the last habit which eventually led to his credibility being worthy of some journalistic investigation. Experts in Big Medals were consulted but couldn't find any record of Bill getting a Big Medal.

I found a person of his name in records of his unit having served his country. Strangely when I put it to him he said it was not him, even though the unit was the same, the surname was the same, and the initials were the same.

There was a mix-up in the records, he said.

As for his Big Medal, after someone had first publicly called his service into question he had smashed it up with a 7lb lump hammer, or so he told me.

If that was correct, he must have got another one, which was personally engraved. Medal experts will tell you that Second World War medals were not issued engraved. He had his new Big Medal on show here and there but that too, on his account, met an unfortunate end. He told me he had thrown it down the pit.

At some stage the Daily Mail's then defence correspondent was working on a feature celebrating our war hero, but before running it seems to have thought it prudent to double check some things.

Talk about putting your foot in it. He got in touch with me in a state of some anxiety. Bill of the Big Medal had complained to the editor of the Daily Mail that he had been "rude to a war veteran."

Bill of the Big Medal is long gone now.

What was the truth about Bill? I have no doubt that he really was a war veteran and really did serve his country. His service record would reveal the details. But service records are not available to third parties.

I did, however, have direct experience of his modus operandi.

As I looked into things, he came in for a chat. "Last time we spoke you threw a book at me." He meant it literally.

It was complete fabrication. I had actually politely pointed out a passage in a book about his unit. Nevertheless worrying imagery swirled around my head. "Nasty journalist threw book at war veteran, jury told," and such headlines.

I imagined the court case, me, a journalist, a profession held in contempt by members of the general public, in the dock facing my accuser, an old man, a war veteran, a "decorated hero."

And yet I was not worried. I took comfort from one thing – it would be Bill's word against mine.