Dear Members of PPruNe
As many of you will know form this thread over on ARRSE
http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...c/start=0.html (Army Rumour Service), I am the solicitor who is acting for Gurkhas Tul Bahadur Pun VC and Lance Corporal Gyanendra Rai (note this is the correct spelling, not as spelt in the Daily Mirror last week).
I am sorry I have not been able to post on here eariler, but things have been hectic and it was easier to post in one place on ARRSE and then get you good people to spread the message to our other "friendly" forums. However, it's about time I got on here, as Rod Liddle has suggested, and say a big thank you to you all. In fact, only yesterday I had my first meeting with a forum member, Tigs2 (a great guy).
Thank you PPruNers!
I saw Rod Liddle's post on here, and also read his article in the Spectator. I am very grateful to him for taking up the issue of my client, Mr Pun VC, and for being the only journalist to get a few quotes from Richard Beeson at our Embassy in Kathmandu (that actually helpped our legal case and has resulted in some interesting things down at the Immigration Courts). Rod, if you need any inside info on my client Lance Corporal Rai, or a few other Gurkha horror cases that are currently coming out, then please feel free to email me at:
[email protected] or PM me.
As forum members will know, there is more to Lance Corporal Rai's story than just that he is a Gurkha wounded in the Falklands. This man's father, as you will see from the statement I posted on our dedicated website:
www.VCHero.co.uk, Hata Bahadur Rai, was crippled during an attack on a Japanese position in Burma. In fact, his nephews (not mentioned on the site) are now serving in the Royal Gurkha Rifles and have recently finished tours of Iraq & Afghanistan (they have also toured the Balkans).
You are correct, Rod, that the people on this website, ARRSE and Rum rationN etc etc have the stories before the "journos" because this is where I have been going to get help. I found plenty of comrades in arms who have "gone the distance" to help my Gurkha clients. Your Spectator Article referred to a very 21st Century approach to this campaign, for a man very set in the 20th Century. You were correct.
Today, by the way, is the 63rd Anniversary of the day, 23rd June 1944, that my client won his Victoria Cross attacking the bridge at Mogaung, Burma. Today also, Captain Michael Allmand lost his life and won the second of the 6th Gurkha Rifles' VCs at Mogaung.
Thanks for coming on here, Rod. But a heartfelt thanks to all those on PPruNe and the other sites (please pass the message on that I can't post everywhere as I only have one set of hands!). I could not win these cases without you, and the pressure you are putting on MPs and the Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne (there is a linke on
www.VCHero.co.uk to Liam Byrn'e Private Office email address as he is the 1 man with the discretion to step in and sort this mess out for Lance Corporal Rai and the other Gurkhas seeking to live in Britian). It is an insult to repeatedly reject these cases by saying that they do not have "close ties" to the UK.
As you all know, Mr Pun VC is flying in to Heathrow on 4th July 2007. I want PPruNers to know I have formally requested a Guard of Honour for him through the MOD. I know people on ARRSE were meeting a "no can do", so I stepped it up to the highest levels. I fear that our Victoria Cross hero may only get the welcome he deserves from the British Public - however that is all he really wants (so turn out in full). I will continue to post details on ARRSE and ask that the posts to be copied over to you on PPruNe, so you will all be "in the loop".
I have to say that as a result of these forums I have met the finest bunch of people I a man could ever meet.
Many thanks.
Kieran O'Rourke
Howe & Co Solicitors
Ealing, London
[email protected]