‘It will be nice not to worry so much now’
WAR widow Margaret Bond celebrated last night after learning she may be eligible for the £87,500 one-off payment.
The 72-year-old said: “A big thank you to the Daily Express for all your campaigning.
“It’s great news – a wonderful start to my day. I’m taken aback.
“The Government dragged their feet for so long, I thought it would never happen.”
Margaret found out she was pregnant with her second child Richard just two weeks after her first husband was tragically killed in Oman in 1975.
Brave Alf “Ginge” Gallagher was 25 and serving with the SAS when he fell victim to a Russian mortar, a day after arriving.
Griefstricken
Margaret, also 25, already had a two-yearold daughter
Fay and was living in
Hereford, close to
Ginge’s base.
After her husband’s full military funeral, she moved back home to Cramlington, near Newcastle, and four years later met her second husband, flour miller John Bond.
Sadly John, 80, died in a care home on Christmas Day last year and Margaret has since suffered a number of health problems.
The retired foster carer said: “I have been too ill to think about the pension. I’m probably eligible to claim that again now.
“Today’s news means I should definitely get something.”
She went on: “I was very disappointed when I had to give up the pension back in 1980. It felt very unjust and unfair that we were discriminated against [for remarrying].
“John had a daughter he was already supporting, and he had to support me and my two kids as well.
“It will be nice now to sit back a bit and not worry so much about things like getting the washing machine fixed.”
Of her children, Richard and Fay, now 46 and 49, Margaret added: “Psychologically it’s always been there.Their dad was taken from them.
“These days I’m more reliant on the children so the money will come at a useful time.”