Two Bradford Chelsea Pensioners have returned to their home city to take part in the annual veterans lunch and the special veterans celebrations this weekend.

Between them, Les Roper, 68, and Dougie Mann, 77, clocked up more than 40 years of Army service.

Now they are two of the 306 Chelsea Pensioners who live at the Royal Hospital in the London borough.

Smartly dressed in their famous scarlet coats and sporting a row of medals, the former servicemen were among the scores of other veterans who attended the lunch at City Hall, Bradford, yesterday.

Mr Roper, who grew up in Undercliffe, has been a Chelsea Pensioner for nine months. He served for nine years with the Royal Signals and 11 years in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

He said: "I served more than 90 per cent of my time overseas, I was in the Middle East, the Gulf, the Arabian peninsular, Borneo and Germany."

During that time, Mr Roper was awarded the campaign medal in the Arabian peninsular, the campaign medal in the Radfan (Aden), and the long service and good conduct medal in Borneo.

Mr Roper, who is staying with members of the Royal British Legion while in Bradford, said: "The comradeship is what you miss when you leave the Army, but that is what I have found again being one of the Chelsea Pensioners.

"It's great to be a part of these celebrations in Bradford, I was invited by the city's Royal British Legion, for which I volunteered for 15 years.

"Bradford has changed massively since I was a boy and there is very little of old Bradford left. Many of the old buildings, like the mills, have been torn down. But they are doing a good job of rebuilding the city."

Mr Mann served in the Army for 25 years in Germany, the Middle East, Egypt, the Far East, Korea, Japan, Oman and Australia. He said: "I remember some terrible things from my times in the Army. When I served in Korea in the 1950s I saw broken bodies in the street, these are images that you can't forget."

Mr Mann, who grew up in Great Horton and Lidget Green, was awarded five medals including the Korean medal for general services, the general services Malaya medal, general service Indonesia medal, general services Malaya Peninsula medal and the Sultan of Oman distinguished service medal.

"The thing about being a Chelsea pensioner is the recognition for services rendered. If we go out in civvies' people just don't notice you, but when we go out in scarlets', you get lots of respect."

Barbara Allsopp, head of the Royal British Legion's central division in Bradford, said: "It is important to remember those who fought in the First World War and the Second World War, and those who are fighting today."

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Robin Owens, said the veterans lunch was always an extremely important part of the civic year where they remember and honour veterans from a number of conflicts.

"This year was extra special as we welcomed Chelsea Pensioners back to their home district," he said.

"This lunch was also a wonderful way to start the mood for the veterans weekend."

Chelsea Pensioners surrender their Army pension in return for board, lodgings, clothes and medical care at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.

The Pensioners have their own licensed club, Post Office, putting and bowling greens, croquet lawn, handicraft workshops, allotments and library.