Porton Down medals

SIR – It is important to clarify that medallic recognition, rather than bravery awards (report, December 3), for Porton Down veterans – who took part in sarin gas tests to help Britain become a nuclear power – would recognise “outstanding service” to this nation’s defence from chemical and biological agents. As volunteers, they did more than simply serve.

Earl Howe, the Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, wrote to my MP: “It has been the policy of successive governments that service in the Armed Forces alone does not constitute justification for medallic representation.”

Anyone aware of the Porton Down veterans’ story will know that this was more than simply serving our country. Testing on humans at Porton Down started in 1916. Porton’s records are no longer complete from the earliest days, but a best guess has the number as at least 33,000 tested since then. It is time for the policy in relation to the Porton veterans to be reassessed.

I renew my call for the special service of the Porton Down veterans to be recognised and a medallic award made for our outstanding service, which contributed to the understanding and protection of our Armed Forces and quite possibly the civil population as well, especially during the Cold War. The mass capability of the Warsaw Pact to use chemical weapons was well known. The veterans were, therefore, on the front line of building our protection and understanding against them.

Chemical weapons have been described as the “poor man’s atomic bomb”. Recent research has linked Gulf War Syndrome to the nerve agent sarin, which was used in testing at Porton.

On a plaque at the National Arboretum is the MOD-approved inscription, which ends: “What they did yesterday was done for you who read this today.”

Ian Foulkes Chippenham, Wiltshire