Memorial Unveiled for Treloar Boys Infected During NHS Blood Experiments

A new memorial has been unveiled at Lord Mayor Treloar College in Hampshire to honour 122 pupils with haemophilia who were given experimental blood products in the 1970s and 1980s and many of whom were later infected with HIV and hepatitis.

Inquiry Finds Pupils Treated As Research Subjects

A 2024 public inquiry into the infected blood scandal found that very few of the boys who attended Treloar's between 1970 and 1987 "escaped being infected." The report concluded the pupils, commonly referred to as the "Treloar Boys," had been treated as "objects of research" and were subjected to experimental treatments without informed consent, while clinicians were aware of the risks.

From about 1977, the inquiry found medical research at the school was carried out "to an extent which appears unparalleled elsewhere." Children were treated unnecessarily with multiple commercial factor concentrates — blood-plasma products containing clotting factor VIII — which carried higher risks of transmitting viruses compared with safer alternatives.

A public inquiry found very few of the pupils with haemophilia that attended the school escaped infection - PA Wire/Andrew Matthews

The Memorial

The new statue at the college depicts two pupils embracing, one with a sling and the other holding a cane. The plinth reads: "Remembering 122 haemophiliac pupils of Treloar's. Infected as children, victims of unethical research." It also features a line from Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the public inquiry: "This disaster was not an accident."

Survivors' Accounts

Adrian Goodyear, 55, recalled arriving at Treloar's as a nine-year-old and feeling as if he had found a miracle place — rolling hills, swimming pools and activity facilities. That optimism was replaced by devastation after he was infected with hepatitis and HIV. He says a doctor told him in 1985 he had "two to three years to live," and that he remembers the doctor announcing diagnoses around a room of boys; he believes he is now the last survivor from that group.

Gary Webster, 61, who attended between 1975 and 1983, recalled being told as a child at mealtime that he had HIV and "had two years to live." He said the treatments administered at Treloar's were unnecessary, harmful and responsible for infecting many boys. Survivors estimate that the viruses contracted at the school have killed more than 90 pupils.

Survivors and founders of the Independent Treloar's Memorial Committee pose next to the statue - PA Wire/Andrew Matthews

Steve Nicholls, 59, who attended from 1976 to 1983, said his parents' trust in the school was betrayed: "We were subject of unethical research behind our parents' backs," he told the Press Association.

Sir Brian Langstaff: "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."

Calls For Justice And Proper Compensation

Campaigners and victims' advocates have called for urgent police action and prosecutions. Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said decades later no one had been prosecuted for what happened to the Treloar Boys and urged that police reports be handled thoroughly and urgently. She also criticised the government compensation cap, describing the current maximum award of £60,000 as inadequate given the scale and severity of the harm.

Des Collins of Collins Solicitors said the treatment of the boys amounted to negligent care and a breach of the school's duty of care, and he described the memorial as a reminder of the real-life consequences when institutions fail vulnerable children.

The memorial aims to honour the victims, acknowledge institutional wrongdoing and help ensure lessons from this tragedy are not forgotten.