A ROYAL British Legion has hit back against allegations that one of its prominent members is a fraud who was never in the army.

Nick MacDonald, 63, a member of Burnham Royal British Legion (RBL), has told others he is a former infantryman and member of the Royal Military Police (RMP), who saw frontline action in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland, receiving the Military Medal.

However, The Walter Mitty Hunters Club, an online group of former and serving military personnel who work to expose false ‘veterans’, have launched a blistering campaign against Mr MacDonald, claiming he has never seen a day of combat.

Burnham RBL says it is ‘completely satisfied’ with Mr MacDonald’s credentials, and labelled the allegations ‘sickening, depraved, and totally untrue’.

Mr MacDonald said: “These people can say what they like. I know who I am, and what I did.”

The club have pointed out the lack of military records to back up Mr MacDonald’s claims. Records of Military Medal recipients from 1930 to 1993 are kept online in the National Archives, and in the government’s announcement paper, The Gazette. But searches by The Observer for Mr MacDonald yielded no results. Furthermore, the South Atlantic Medal Association (SAMA), which keeps records of soldiers who fought in the Falklands War, said they had no records of anyone matching Mr MacDonald’s description.

Mr Macdonald submitted a photograph of himself in Northern Ireland to this newspaper as proof of service – however, this has been contested. Former member of the Royal Military Police, Nik Woodrow, 49, of Scarborough, said he is in fact the man in Mr MacDonald’s photograph. Mr Woodrow said: “I found out about this because people were tagging me in this photo on Facebook - saying ‘this is you, isn’t it?’

“It’s certainly me. It was sometime between 2001 to 2002.” Mr Macdonald denied all the allegations against him.

He explained that he had changed his name after leaving the military and did not wish his former name to be publicly known. But he supplied a change of name deed as proof, and further research revealed that a man by that name had, indeed, received the Military Medal in Northern Ireland.

The SAMA was still unable to confirm whether he had participated in the Falklands but admitted its records were not complete. The law firm that signed off the change of name now appears to be defunct.

Mr Macdonald insisted he was the man in the photo he supplied, and rubbished Mr Woodrow’s claims. He said: “That is me - you can see that it’s me from a mile away.”

Mr Macdonald said he had no further photos of his military career, as they had been thrown out.

A spokeswoman for the national Royal British Legion said: “We do not condone false representations of service and are conducting a review into the concerns raised.”