THEIR EMOTIONAL PLEA

Madam,

It is with the greatest of respect that we write to you, our beloved Queen.

We have all been devout Monarchists throughout our lives and our sons all paid the highest price fighting for Queen and country at war in Afghanistan.

As mums, we were destroyed by the loss of our children at war, but now we are further devastated to learn that the man responsible for sending them to their deaths is to receive the highest honour in the land.

We have always believed that our troops were sent to war in both Iraq and Afghanistan on a bed of the prime minister’s lies and untruths.

And as a result, we still face daily heartbreak knowing that we should never have gone to war in these countries and that our sons should still be alive today.

The news of Tony Blair’s knighthood has set us all back years. It makes a mockery of our children’s lives, and we are struggling to cope with it.

It is the biggest blow ever to us all for the start of a New Year.

Did we really lose 457 soldiers in Afghanistan and 179 in Iraq so that the Blairs could go down in decorated history?

We know how devoted you are to your children and grandchildren and believe that you will understand our plight. We are all struggling to understand how a man who has caused so much worldwide upset and devastation could be given such a privileged award. He has caused untold misery while making himself a multimillionaire at the same time. We do not view him as a man of peace – on the contrary we maintain he has the deaths of all our soldiers on his hands.

This has left us all enraged, bewildered, and heartbroken and we beg you to revoke his knighthood which we believe tramples on our sons’ sacrifices.

We understand this is a highly controversial request – but we also say there is nothing more controversial or repugnant than a political leader being rewarded for so many unnecessary and immoral deaths that could have been avoided.

As the head of our great country, we understand you always hand down knighthoods to former prime ministers, but we urge you to consider that exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures.

Our young sons were in the prime of their lives when they were killed fighting a war we should never have been at. We can never get over that loss, but our misery is compounded knowing that the man responsible is being honoured.

We remain your loyal subjects, but we could not let this pass without sharing with you our profound heartache and despair at this knighthood. With our deepest respect,

Carol Valentine, Hazel Hunt, Caroline Whitaker, Caroline Jane Munday-Baker and Helen Perry