ORGANISERS of this weekend’s Festival of Remembrance have delivered Merchant Navy veterans a “kick in the teeth” by preventing them from taking part in the Albert Hall event.

Veterans from the three branches of the armed forces take part in the Royal British Legion event’s central London parade, but this year it will not feature Merchant Navy second world war veterans in what, for some, could be their last commemoration.

Though serving members of the Merchant Navy will take part in “the muster,” the veterans were merely offered free tickets to attend as spectators.

Assistant general secretary of maritime union Nautilus Mike Jess said the decision was a “kick in the teeth” to the Merchant Navy.

“It is shameful that their heroism can be disregarded in this way and we hope, even at this late hour, the Royal British Legion will think again and ensure that the veterans can take their rightful place at the centre of events to honour those who lost their lives to keep our country free,” he said.

The Merchant Navy Welfare Board (MNWB) said that for the last 20 years, with the agreement of the Legion, it had arranged for the participation and paid the costs of between four and six serving or retired Merchant Navy veterans who have served during times of conflict.

“Our veterans have featured in every performance and a brief resumé of their always poignant experiences has been broadcast to the audiences,” the MNWB said.

“In 2013, the 70th anniversary of ‘the turning of the tide’ of the Battle of the Atlantic, our veterans were given their own special prominence during the performance and we remain hugely grateful to the Legion.”

But in 2014, veterans were given free tickets but did not take part in the parade, the board said.

MNWB chief executive Captain David Parsons said: “In consideration that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II the board had, in good faith, nominated six veterans who had served at that time.

“It is important to emphasise that [the] youngest of these is in his late eighties. We realised that this will probably be the last major anniversary for those who had served in that conflict to appear.

“Unfortunately, for undisclosed reasons, the Legion has taken a decision not to include our veterans in this year’s performance. They did offer a small number of seats in the audience, but we felt that this was an unacceptable level of recognition and this was therefore declined.”

A spokeswoman for the Royal British Legion denied there had been any change to the role of the Merchant Navy in this year’s festival.

“Recognition is given in the festival programme commensurate with the anniversaries and commemorations being observed in any given year and therefore levels of involvement may vary year on year,” she said.

“Merchant Navy veterans have been invited to attend the festival with free tickets offered to them and serving members of the Merchant Navy are taking part in the muster. The festival’s muster has always been for serving personnel only, in the same way that the cenotaph march-past is exclusively for veterans.”