A retired army officer is still urging people to sign a petition which will recognise his centenarian father and the soldiers who fought alongside him in World War II to be honoured.

The petition started by retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Powell, from Betws Disserth near Hundred House, needs 10,000 signatures by Tuesday, August 27 – which is just over a week – to receive a written response from Parliament.

It has 2,510 signatures at the time of writing.

Trevor started the petition on behalf of his 101-year-old father Hugh Powell, known by his middle name Bruce, who served in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) – later called the British Army in Western Europe – which was deployed to defend France while it was invaded by Nazi Germany.

However, Trevor said that despite September marking the 80th anniversary since the BEF heading to France, BEF veterans have not been honoured with a clasp by the UK Government or the French State like others who fought between 1944 and 1945.

The petition is aiming for BEF veterans to be honoured with a clasp to the 1939-45 Star as they fought alongside the army, the navy and the air force in some of the most brutal World War II battles in France in 1939 and 1940 – including assisting with the rescue at the 1940 battle of Dunkirk.

Trevor, who is the organist at St Mary’s Church in Bettws and a member of Builth Wells Male Voice Choir, said: “My father has many memories of charging around the French countryside on his motorbike, changing tank batteries and repairing tracks. Sadly he contracted meningitis when he was living is very unsanitary conditions at his unit local on Vimy Ridge – before Dunkirk.”

The 72-year-old said that his father, who now lives in New Zealand, was evacuated with others to the UK shortly after the Nazi break-through on May 10, 1940.

After he had recovered from meningitis, Bruce studied radar at Treforest before he was deployed again, not with the BEF, to North Africa and Italy before the troops were demobilised in 1946.

It was in the time before he was deployed again, Bruce became engaged over the phone to his late wife Dorothy – he married her 48 hours later in Chesterfield.

Army officer selection board member Trevor said that his parents had met at the Branston Depot, which was the old pickle factory, in Branston, Staffordshire.

He said: “She was responsible for uniforms and badges. He was at the depot before going to Treforest to study radar.

“Before he was re-deployed, he decided to propose. He only had a tuppence so he made a tuppence phone call.

“He called the roadside phone where she lived and somebody said ‘Dorothy? I’ll go get her’. She’d been washing her hair when he called.

“The operators were very good and kept the call going. One of the exchanges was that one of the lines had been hit by a bomb.

“The call had to be re-routed through Scotland. One of the operators said at the time ‘I’ve got the bride but I’ve lost the groom’. When he asked, she said yes.”

Trevor, who grows apples and makes his own cider to sell, said that 48 hours later his father had traveled to Chesterfield to marry Dorothy at the church with the crooked spire.

While Bruce was deployed, from 1942 until 1946, Dorothy worked hard and saved money to buy a home in Acton for the couple for when he returned from war.

The Powell family moved to New Zealand in 1955 where Bruce started his service with the New Zealand Royal Navy. While Bruce still lives in Auckland, Trevor returned to the UK in 1979.

For more on this story, see this week’s edition of The Brecon & Radnor Express.