A mother whose son was killed in Basra, a senior non-commissioned officer with PTSD and a psychiatric nurse reflect 20 years on
war left a profound mark on the UK. It forced the country to face up to its role, having initially helped rid Iraq of a brutal dictator, in the years of deadly chaos that followed. At home, meanwhile, it acted as the catalyst for one of the most popular domestic antiwar movements the country has seen.
She went from leading a quiet family life to running a high-profile campaign for justice for her son and others. “The more I heard about Iraq, [the more] I thought there’s something not right. And that’s what triggered me off to start the campaign to find out why we went into Iraq,” she says in an interview marking Monday’s 20th anniversary of the invasion.Families Against the War, which campaigned for the Chilcot inquiry, as well as for better equipment for those who were still serving there.
“If he was still here and hadn’t been in the army, yeah, probably my life would have been different. It probably would have been. This was just something I felt I had to do for my son … I probably would’ve had a quiet life.” Years later, and having retired in 2013, he found himself struggling with his mental health. “When I left the army, I started to get into trouble, basically. My relationship broke down … And then, I went to Combat Stress [a veterans’ charity] in 2015 and I started the programme there.”
He says he was asked to apply to the Channel 4 show, but declined for fear of putting undue pressure on himself and losing his hobby as a means of controlling his condition. “It becomes a chore, not a pleasure. The pottery’s there as a way of helping me relax. If I turn it into a business or something like that, or take it up full-time, it then becomes a chore and it takes that enjoyment away.”
Part of the experience in Iraq, Mealing explains, was a cocktail of emotions. It may not be as readily acknowledged in public, but one of those is excitement. “There was that sense of excitement, it’s a sense of doing what it’s all about, I guess,” he says of being deployed to join the initial invasion force in 2003.
He says his second tour was marked more by fear of a people who no longer wanted the British army in Iraq and of insurgents who would put their positions under indirect fire – rounds often falling close to where he was holding his clinic.
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