By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-27 06:25:51 | Updated at 2026-09-27 07:08:12
1 hour ago
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, pupils at Lord Mayor’s Treloar’s College with haemophilia, a condition where blood does not clot properly were given experimental blood products.
Of the 122 pupils with haemophilia that attended the Hampshire boarding 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.
Now, a memorial depicting two boy embracing each other - one with a sling and the other with a cane - has been installed at the college.
"Remembering 122 haemophiliac pupils of Treloar’s. Infected as children, victims of unethical research," the bottom of the memorial reads.
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 when he first attended the school, it felt like a "new dawn", but left the college with "death sentences" as he described how he was infected with HIV and hepatitis.
PICTURED: Survivors Richard Warwick, Adrian Goodyear Steve Nicholls and Gary Webster stand alongside infected blood memorial
PA
"In 1985, a doctor tearfully said that I had two to three years to live," he said.
"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."
Mr Goodyear said the memorial was important to keep the scandal in the "public consciousness" and to honour those who died.
He added: "When we were here we made promises… they died in front of us, one winter we lost five boys.
Adrian Goodyear said the memorial would keep the scandal in the 'public consciousness
PA
"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".
He said: "For eight years we were experimented on, unethically treated, it wasn’t needed, it didn't improve our lives.
"In fact, it hindered our lives and gave us viruses that have killed over 90 boys so far."
Steve Nicholls, 59, who attended the school from 1976 to 1983, was just eight years old when he attended the school and the subject "unethical research behind our parents' backs".
The memorial's inscription reads: 'This disaster was not an accident'
PA
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."
