Gulf War Veterans March

To London for the March of Gulf War Veterans to the Cenotaph to lay a wreath and raise awareness of the conditions. As readers will know Gulf War Syndrome, or Gulf War Illness affected US, British and Commonwealth servicemen, although the French Army was not affected, but some Czech soldiers were, which must be a worthy avenue of research. 

British veterans generally do not receive the respect for their service which we see their counterparts receive in the US and Australia and some of these men have suffered in various areas of life, and continue to do so.

The march started at Hyde Park Corner but I met them in Lower Regent Street.

We stopped by the Crimea War memorial;

another conflict where the returning servicemen found themselves suffering in later life, as  Rudyard Kipling described in his poem The Last of the Light Brigade

Across Trafalgar Square and the statue of Admiral Lord Nelson looking down. 

Into Whitehall, past Horseguards (acknowledging the Guardsmen on duty) and the Women’s Memorial, stopping at Downing Street and into the middle of the road to the Cenotaph.

Dave Fender laid a wreath and we observed two minutes silence.

Dave then made a brief speech. He thanked us all for attending. Numbers were down for this march due to the illness of veterans who intended to come, and who had come previously. They are not getting any younger or fitter. He spoke of his own experience; that when his regiment was deployed to the Gulf he signed on for a further three years as he didn’t want to let his friends down. While at Camp Blackadder the call went out for driver volunteers. This was to work with the War Grave Commisson and was the most traumatic task he had ever undertaken.

25 years on the veterans are still struggling down a hard road. He has has two strokes and only last month yet another seizure from which his son-in-law had to resuscitate him followed by a stay in hospital. Illness affects their families and they know of several families whose children have health problems which they believe are a result of their father’s service. They lost 47 British personel across all three services in the Gulf, but many more have died since, of illnesses men of their age would not anticipate. But they will soldier on. It isn’t compensation that they are asking for, nice as that would be, but proper medical care and research.

Journalists from Rex Features and xxx also covered the event from Whitehall, here and xxx (and when I remember his agency, I’ll find the link)

Three very considerate police officers then escorted us back to the pavement and we made our way for refreshments. 

War isn’t pretty. Even in peacetime there are more deaths and injuries in the armed forces than the general public realises. But there was something about the conditions in the Gulf War that was particualrly detrimental to the personel who fought there, and in the UK at least, they don’t get as much support as they deserve. 

Photographs E Weatherwax London September 2016