Taiwanese honour for Veterans Aid CEO
Veterans welfare model hailed as paradigm.
CEO of Veterans Aid Dr Hugh Milroy has been awarded a Republic of China (Taiwan) Ministry of National Defence Service Medal in recognition of his commitment to improving mutual understanding of veterans’ affairs.
He is believed to be only the second British person to receive the award which was last given to Gerald Fitzpatrick, a captain in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, who died in 2018.
In a brief informal ceremony at Veterans Aid’s Victoria HQ Dr Milroy accepted the medal from Col James Yuan PhD.
Col Yuan said, "During my posting as Assistant Director (de facto Defence Attaché) in London, Dr Hugh Milroy, CEO of Veterans Aid, has consistently assisted the Republic of China (Taiwan) in a variety of fields. He not only coordinated and arranged visits for Taiwanese government (especially Veteran Affairs Council) delegations, but also provided practical knowledge and experiences of veteran issues which are extremely useful to Taiwan.
“To honour his outstanding contribution and strong support to the VAC, and to Taiwan as a whole, he received an Appreciation Certificate presented by the Deputy Minister Lee of VAC in February 2019.
Further to that, on behalf of the ROC Armed Forces, I presented the Ministry of National Defence Service medal to Dr Milroy as a token of appreciation for his promotion of defence engagement between ROC (Taiwan) and the United Kingdom.”
Col Yuan’s sentiments were echoed by Senior Inspector Veterans Affairs Council, ROC (Taiwan) Col (Retd.) Felix Wang who added, “Thank you very much for your persistent support to the Veterans Affairs Council/Republic of China (Taiwan) in all the aspects.
“Your model in promoting Veterans’ welfare of UK is a paradigm in this regard! I am looking forward to enhancing our connection to exchange ideas and wisdom in taking care of the Veterans in the near future.”
Through Veterans Aid, Dr Milroy has been providing informal support to the ROC for eight years but his personal links with Taiwan go back to 1978 when he was part of a small group that boarded and concluded the attempted hijacking of a Taiwanese passenger aircraft in Hong Kong.
After accepting this latest honour, he said, “I’m delighted to have the cordial relations between Veterans Aid and the VAC acknowledged in this way. I believe there are around 360,000 veterans in Taiwan and more than 2 million in the UK, but the issues relating to their care and wellbeing are universal. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to meet and share experiences with members of the VAC which was established more than 50 years ago to honour and reward those who fought for their country. I look forward to building on this excellent relationship.”
Dr Milroy, a former RAF officer who served for 17 years, has headed up Veterans Aid since 2005. During that time, he has forged links with veterans’ organisations and those dedicated to the wellbeing of veterans, worldwide. Veterans Aid is a proud member of the World Veteran Federation, an association of 172 veterans’ organisations from 121 countries that represents around 45 million veterans worldwide.
