Memorial created at school where boys were infected with HIV and hepatitis

Boys who were infected with HIV and hepatitis when they were experimented on as schoolchildren have been recognised with a new memorial.

During the 1970s and 1980s, boys with the blood clotting disorder haemophilia were given experimental blood products while they attended the Lord Mayor’s Treloar’s College, a boarding school in Hampshire.

Of the 122 pupils with haemophilia that attended the school between 1970 and 1987, only around 30 were still alive when the Infected Blood Public Inquiry published its main report into the scandal in 2024.

The report highlighted how “very few” of the pupils with haemophilia that attended the school during the 1970s and 1980s “escaped being infected”.

It concluded that the pupils, commonly referred to as the Treloar Boys, had been treated as “objects of research” and highlighted how the pupils were experimented on without their knowledge by NHS clinicians, who knew the dangers it posed.

Richard Warwick, Adrian Goodyear, Steve Nicholls and Gary Webster (L-R) were among the 122 haemophiliac boys treated at Lord Mayor’s Treloar’s College in Hampshire in the 1970s and 1980s (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Now, a memorial has been installed at the college.

The statue depicts two pupils, one with a sling and and another holding a cane, embracing each other.

“Remembering 122 haemophiliac pupils of Treloar’s. Infected as children, victims of unethical research” is scribed at the bottom of the memorial.

It also features a quote from Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the public inquiry, which says: “This disaster was not an accident.”

Adrian Goodyear, 55, said that when he first attended the school it felt like a “new dawn”, adding: “When I first arrived here with 10 other friends I was nine years old – we couldn’t believe the place we were looking at: rolling country hills, swimming pools, canoes, a Jacobian mansion, it was just remarkable at first.

“We left school with death sentences,” he told the Press Association, describing how he was infected with hepatitis and HIV while at school.

“In 1985, a doctor tearfully said that I had two to three years to live.

“I was told this with five other boys and the doctor went round the room and said: ‘You have… you haven’t… you have… you haven’t… you have got HIV’.

“I’m the last remaining boy in that room.”

He said the memorial was important to keep the scandal “in the public consciousness” and to honour those who died.

“When we were here we made promises… they died in front of us, one winter we lost five boys.

“I made promises to them, as did the other lads here today, that we would never give up, we would find out what happened.”

Gary Webster, 61, who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C when he attend Treloar’s between 1975 and 1983, recalled how he was called to the doctor’s office one dinner time as a child, was told he had HIV “and had two years to live”.

“For eight years we were experimented on, unethically treated, it wasn’t needed, it didn’t improve our lives,” he told the Press Association.

“In fact, it hindered our lives and gave us viruses that have killed over 90 boys so far.”

He said that the memorial was important “to remember what happened and to make sure it never happens again”.

Steve Nicholls, 59, who attended the school from 1976 to 1983, told the Press Association: “I was eight years old, I was just a little boy.

“My parents put their trust in the school and they were betrayed. We were subject of unethical research behind our parents’ backs, it’s as wrong then as it is today.”

On the memorial, he added: “That statue represents me 50 years ago, it represents the boys 50 years ago, it’s what we were.

“It resembles the comradeship and the bonds that were formed at the college at the time.

“I have known the majority of these boys for 50 years, I went to school with them for eight years: We played together, we slept in the same dormitories as each other and we were treated together. So, we became like brothers.

“We were often referred to as ‘blood brothers’ and we’ve stayed in contact throughout the years.

Former pupils said the memorial would help ‘remember what happened and to make sure it never happens again'(Andrew Matthews/PA)

He added: “We feel incredibly guilty for surviving it and getting through it when many of our friends didn’t.”

Richard Warwick, who attended the school between 1976 and 1982, said the memorial was a “symbol of comradeship, friendship and support”.

Haemophilia is an inherited disorder where the blood does not clot properly.

Most people with the condition have a shortage of the protein that enables human blood to clot, known as factor VIII.

In the 1970s, a new treatment was developed – factor concentrate – to replace the missing clotting agent which was made from donated human blood plasma.

The inquiry concluded children at Treloar’s were treated with multiple commercial concentrates that were known to carry higher risks of infection and staff favoured the “advancement of research” above the best interests of the children.

The report found that from 1977, medical research was carried out at Treloar’s “to an extent which appears unparalleled elsewhere” and children were treated unnecessarily with concentrates, particularly commercial ones rather than alternative safer treatments.

Sir Brian Langstaff’s report found there is “no doubt” that the healthcare professionals at Treloar’s were aware of the risks of virus transmission through blood and blood products.

Sir Brian said: “It is important that we keep a spotlight on the lessons of the inquiry and never forget the human tragedies at the heart of this scandal which has left long scars, not only in this Hampshire community but across the UK.”

Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors, said: “The treatment the boys received here at Treloar’s was negligent and amounted to a breach of the school’s duty of care as well as a betrayal of the trust the parents placed in the school.

“Today is about remembering the real-life consequences of responsibilities, at a local and state level.”

Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: “Decades later, still no one has been prosecuted for what was done to the (Treloar’s boys). We urge their police reports to be dealt with thoroughly and urgently.

“And we urge the Government to reconsider why they have set such a pitifully low sum of £60,000 to compensate them for the unethical research undertaken on them.”