Forces families based in Cyprus: Tell us why 450 of our babies died
FAMILIES of British servicemen are calling for a public inquiry into hundreds of baby deaths at a base in Cyprus half a century ago.
More than 450 children born to members of the Armed Forces were buried in a military cemetery in Dhekelia between 1960 and 1976.
In 1963, 53 babies died – more than one a week – with 11 dying in November of that year alone.
Families became aware of the scale only when they returned decades later and saw how big the area of the graveyard devoted to babies had eventually become.
The Ministry of Defence commissioned a study in 2010 which concluded that the death rates were ‘not notably out of line’ with conditions in Cyprus at the time. But relatives have dismissed the analysis as ‘flawed’ and urged officials to launch a full investigation.
Burial records show that, at their height, infant graves outnumbered adult ones by almost two to one. Theories range from negligence and outbreaks of disease to vaccine side effects or exposure of military personnel to radioactive material.
Margaret and Bob Braban lost their son Miles in November 1963 while stationed at Nicosia with the Royal Air Force, and are certain he would have lived with better care.
He had been born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and amniotic fluid in his lungs, and survived for just two days.
Mrs Braban, 82, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, said she was shocked to discover the huge death toll.
‘We didn’t know how many babies were dying at that hospital. We thought we were the only ones, because nobody talked about it.
‘It wasn’t until we went back to the cemetery and saw hundreds of babies that we saw the scale of it.’
Mr Braban, 84, added: ‘All the military mothers going into the hospital were young, fit and healthy, so the death rates should have been lower than the general population.’
Most of the babies are thought to have died at the military hospital in Dhekelia, one of the two sovereign bases on the island which Britain retained after Cyprus was granted independence in 1960 following decades of colonial rule.
The high turnover and short postings of personnel on the island meant it was many years before anyone noticed the high incidence of child deaths. Des Smith, whose brother Reggie died of bronchial pneumonia a week after visiting the hospital in 1960, said there were ‘many unanswered questions’.
He added that his family were sent back to the UK within 24 hours of his brother’s funeral, and never discussed it with anyone. It was only when they visited the cemetery in 2000, on what would have been his brother’s 40th birthday, that his mother and father, Joyce and Martin, saw the other graves. They are now buried alongside Reggie.
Mr Smith, 60, said: ‘It’s too late for my parents and many others, so now it’s down to us to tell their stories and get answers.
‘We just want to get to the truth, but feel like the military is trying to hide it. All we are trying to achieve is an acknowledgment that something did go wrong here and an apology for my parents and for my brother.’
Officials have been unable to give any definitive reason for the deaths, concluding they were the result of high infant mortality in the early 1960s. For the 2010 report, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed data for excess deaths. Professor Stephen Evans found overall rates at all stages of infancy were a little higher than those seen in the UK, but broadly as expected for the time.
But the statistical data remains unpublished, and it is unclear what dates were analysed. A book which claims to quote the report showed the death rates were almost double in some years, including a neonatal death rate of 29.3 per 1,000 babies born in Cyprus in 1964, compared with 16.4 in England and Wales.
Mr Braban, who served with the RAF for 35 years, said he believes hospital negligence was at the core of the high deaths. He added: ‘These things happen in the best of hospitals, but they don’t happen on the scale they happened there.
‘Something like that shouldn’t just be allowed to lie.
‘We’ve always thought there should be a proper medical inquiry into this, and just hope we can get someone willing to listen.’
Today, a baby born to Forces personnel who died would be repatriated to the UK for burial.
The Cypriot graves are now tended by retired nursery head Annie Macmillan Davies, 67, who has placed teddies on every child’s grave. Mrs Davies, whose parents are buried in the cemetery, said the graves ‘just looked so forgotten’.
‘We had no idea – we thought it was just us’ ‘It feels like the military are trying to hide it’