British veterans say MoD failed them over US toxic water payout

British military veterans affected by a long-running toxic water scandal in the US, say they feel let down by a lack of support from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, hundreds of UK personnel and civilians were posted or spent time at Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina, where they were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals from a polluted water supply.

Relatives of those who have since died told the BBC that the MoD has done nothing to help them access a US compensation scheme for victims, which closes next month.

The MoD says it takes the safety of its personnel very seriously.

Joe House served 31 proud years with the Royal Marines, but a shadow now looms over those memories. The 69-year-old loved his decades of service, which included parachute training with the then-Prince Charles.

However, events of the past few years have left him wondering how far the British military had his back.

In 2021, Joe’s wife Carol died from a rare form of leukaemia, associated with a toxic water scandal at the US base where they lived for two years in the 1980s.

For decades, chemicals had been leaking into the water supplies at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, increasing the risk of some cancers.

This contamination prompted one of the biggest mass civil legal actions in US history – about one million people were potentially exposed to the toxic water between the 1950s and 1980s.

Research by File on 4 suggests those put at risk included more than 1,000 British military personnel and civilians who went to Camp Lejeune in this period.

The Ministry of Defence has been criticised for not doing more to trace and alert any of these veterans or their families.

What’s more, a deadline for making compensation claims to the US government falls next month.

Joe only found out about the contamination by chance two years after Carol died.

“You expect as the service person to go into danger,” he says. “You don’t expect your family to go into danger and receive no support.”

Joe was posted at Camp Lejeune in 1982 with Carol and their one-year-old son, Paul, as part of an officers’ exchange programme run by the Royal and US Marines.

Home in the vast base, which hugs 14 miles of North Carolina’s coastline, was a neighbourhood called Paradise Point. Joe remembers that they were “looked after so well” by the US Marines.

“I don’t remember anyone saying anything about the water being a problem – it would have struck a chord because of having children,” he says.

Joe’s daughter, Sarah, was born on the camp in 1983. The posting was a “thoroughly enjoyable” highlight of a busy military life, which saw the family move 17 times over three decades.

In 2021, Joe and Carol were living in Portsmouth when blood tests ahead of a hip replacement operation revealed that Carol, a teacher, had acute myeloid leukaemia.

“The doctors said to her, ‘Why have you got this type of leukaemia normally associated with asbestos and nuclear submariners?’” says Joe.

“Which I thought, ‘Yeah this is odd.’”

Carol died just before Christmas in 2021. Two years later, Joe spotted a notice in a veterans’ newsletter from a legal firm pursuing Camp Lejeune compensation claims.

“[My] immediate reaction was, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s gone on here?’

“You get thoughts like, ‘If we hadn’t gone would she still have been here? If we’d have known earlier could the treatment have been different?’”

Joe has now filed a compensation claim in the US on behalf of Carol but is frustrated with what he sees as a lack of action and support from the MoD.

“When it [the contamination] was known back in the US, what happened then? Why wasn’t the information passed back?”

The strong ties between US and British Marines at Camp Lejeune are illustrated in the camp’s now defunct newspaper, The Globe.

Reports of training programmes and visits from senior UK military figures, including then-defence secretary John Nott in 1981, run alongside adverts for the English Wives Club and Union Jack groceries shop.

The MoD has not been able to provide the BBC with details of how many British servicepeople were posted to Camp Lejeune.

However, research by File on 4 – based on decades-worth of archive files and military newsletters – suggests nearly 1,200 British personnel and civilians were there for at least one day between 1953 and 1987.

They, and the tens of thousands of Americans who lived and worked at the camp at that time, did not know the water supply was contaminated.

The pollution was found to come from multiple sources, including a leaking fuel farm and dumped solvents from a dry cleaner’s, that had seeped through the ground and into the water wells.

A series of public health studies found there was an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease and some cancers for people who had lived on the base.

This included a 20% higher chance of developing acute myeloid leukaemia, the cancer that killed Joe’s wife, when compared to people stationed at another military base.

An outcry led to legislation being passed in the US to help those affected. President Biden signed a law in 2022 allowing compensation claims.

This is open to any service personnel from around the world, or their families, who lived at the base for at least 30 non-consecutive days over the four decades in question.

The BBC’s research suggests at least 205 British people would qualify.

But a two-year window to submit a compensation claim closes on 10 August.

The Royal Marine Joe replaced on the exchange scheme was Jonathan Lear, who had been there since 1980 with his wife Chris and their two young daughters.

The posting was one of many during a 30-year military career for Jonathan that saw him reach the rank of major and awarded an OBE for his service.

Jonathan was diagnosed in 2002 with kidney cancer and died seven years later.

In May this year, BBC News broke the news of the water contamination scandal to his widow, Chris.

“Obviously lots of things were running around my head, thinking, ‘why is a journalist ringing me up to tell me this news?’” she says.

“There must be some other way that I should have been told.”

Chris says she feels very let down and thinks the MoD should have told her and other veterans’ families about the compensation in 2022.

More than 266,000 compensation claims have been submitted to the US Department of the Navy, which oversees the US Marines. It says it is not possible to break down how many of these are from British people.

The US Navy has not replied to questions about how news of the contamination was communicated to its allies, but a spokesman says it “remains committed to quickly, equitably, and transparently addressing claims submitted under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act”.

Responding to the BBC, the MoD said: “We take the safety of our personnel very seriously.” However, it did not answer a series of questions about the steps it had taken to publicise the toxic water scandal and the US compensation scheme.

A spokesman told us that British veterans who had served at Camp Lejeune – and believed their health was affected – could apply for compensation under the War Pension Scheme (WPS).

This offers compensation for any injury, illness or death caused by service before 2005.

However, the WPS has faced criticism for the high burden of proof required, and for not being open to posthumous claims by family members.

Andrew Buckham, a military lawyer for Irwin Mitchell, the firm handling Chris and Joe’s compensation claims, says the WPS route is not as straightforward as the US scheme.

The WPS is focused on the veteran and not their family members, he argues. “The onus is very much on the individual to link their condition to their military service, in this case in Camp Lejeune.”

This could complicate claims on behalf of victims such as Joe’s wife Carol, who was a civilian.

Under the US scheme, however, Mr Buckham points out that there is also the opportunity for relatives to make compensation claims.

Joe says finding out about the contamination, and what he describes as the MoD’s inaction on the matter, has taken away a lot of his goodwill towards the military.

“You’ve given 31 years and others have given longer,” he says. “You need support – it’s not there.”