HE risked his life serving Queen and country in the RAF for 13 years.

But when Dalton man John Evans retired at 55, the pensioner didn’t even get a penny in his pension from the Royal Air Force.

Now the 67-year-old and other members of the Armed Forces Pension Group are fighting for the money they say they were denied when the qualifying rules were changed in 1975.

Mr Evans said: “The rule changes meant servicemen who left the forces before April 1975 without serving the full 22 years are given nothing.

“If a serviceman served less than 22 years then the time they served doesn’t count at all.”

The rule was changed in 1975 so those 26 or older with five years’ service or more were awarded a preserved pension at 60.

Then in 1988 the time members of the forces had to served was reduced to two years without an age limit.

Mr Evans joined the RAF in 1959 when he was just 17 and worked as a member of the ground staff.

Although the Welshman wanted to extend his service and remain in the Air Force he was debunked in 1973 as the force was scaled down.

He met his first wife who was from Yorkshire and he moved to Huddersfield, later joining West Yorkshire Police.

He was on the beat in Moldgreen, Lockwood and Milnsbridge, but as a police constable he had to retire at 55 – with only three quarters of his police pension.

He said: “I thought my RAF pension would count but I got nothing.

“I feel rather angry about it.

“I didn’t serve in a war zone as such.

“But I went out to Ireland the day after Bloody Sunday

“It was my job to load the bodies on to the aircraft that year.”

Now he has signed up with The Armed Forces Pension Group who are campaigning on behalf of those who left the forces before 1975.

The father-of-two explained: “We are asking Her Majesty’s Government for pension rights based on years of service and related, pro rata, to pensions received by contemporaries who completed 22 years of service.”

The group is backed by Leeds MP Colin Challen who has put down an early day motion for the issue to be discussed in the House of Commons.

For more information about the Armed Forces Pension Group visit www.afpg.info