Memorial unveiled at Hampshire school for pupils harmed by contaminated blood treatments
A memorial has been unveiled at Lord Mayor Treloar School and College in Hampshire, where children with haemophilia were infected with HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood products decades ago. Survivors said the memorial honours pupils who died and keeps the scandal in public view after a major inquiry documented extensive medical experimentation.
A memorial has been installed at a Hampshire school where children with haemophilia were infected with HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood products during the 1970s and 1980s. The memorial at Lord Mayor Treloar School and College, near Alton, depicts two pupils embracing, one holding a sling and the other a cane. Former pupils and survivors attended its unveiling.
The school provided specialist care for children with haemophilia. Of the 122 pupils with haemophilia who attended, about 30 were alive when the Infected Blood Public Inquiry published its report in 2024. The inquiry found that very few pupils with haemophilia at the school between 1970 and 1987 escaped infection.
It said NHS clinicians had treated children as research objects and carried out experiments without their knowledge despite knowing the risks. Adrian Goodyear, who attended the school from the age of nine, said he was infected with hepatitis and HIV there. He recalled being told by a doctor in 1985 that he had two or three years to live.
Goodyear said the memorial was important for keeping the scandal in the public consciousness and honouring those who died. He recalled losing five boys in one winter and said survivors had promised to discover what had happened. Gary Webster, who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C while attending between 1975 and 1983, said the memorial should help people remember the events and ensure they were not repeated.
Steve Nicholls described it as a representation of the pupils and the bonds formed among them. The inquiry’s chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, said the research at Treloar’s appeared unparalleled elsewhere and had left long-lasting scars. Former pupils have pursued legal action against the school’s trust in the High Court.
More than £2 billion has been paid in compensation to infected-blood victims across the United Kingdom.
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