When Lt Col Crawford Harvey’s wife Jacqueline died at the age of 77 from mesothelioma – a terminal cancer caused by asbestos – he remembered all the faded military quarters they had shared during his 39 years of service.
Could she have been exposed to the deadly fibres in one of those?
‘When people ask me what she was like, I sum her up by describing what she loved – family, fun, flowers, sewing, dogs and friends,’ he says. ‘She was wonderful.’
Lt Col Harvey, 77, didn’t think life could get any worse after losing Jacqueline in 2022 after 50 years of marriage. He’d never previously heard of mesothelioma, which kills most of those diagnosed within a year. She had lasted about a year and a half.
But then, six months ago, he was diagnosed with it, too.
‘We’re all going to die of something,’ he says. ‘But to have two people together for 50 years and then, within the span of four years, both are diagnosed with the same relatively rare cancer caused by asbestos? You’d have to say that’s spooky.’
You would indeed – except that, as the Daily Mail reveals today, the Harveys’ tale is only the tip of the iceberg. The Ministry of Defence paid out £112.5million in compensation to 803 victims of mesothelioma between 2016 and 2025.
To put that into perspective, British forces were in action in Afghanistan for 20 years, from 2001 to 2021. During that time, there were 405 deaths due to hostile enemy action.
Lt Col Harvey (pictured), 77, didn’t think life could get any worse after losing Jacqueline in 2022 after 50 years of marriage. He’d never heard of mesothelioma, which kills most of those diagnosed within a year. She had lasted about a year and a half. Then, he was diagnosed too
Lt Col Crawford Harvey’s wife Jacqueline (pictured) died at the age of 77 from mesothelioma – a terminal cancer caused by asbestos
Lt Commander Jeffrey Picken, 69, served on five ships and five submarines, all while being exposed to asbestos that had been installed in the vessels for its fire-retardant properties. He died from mesothelioma on New Year’s Day in 2018. Pictured: His widow, Veronica, 77, holding a photograph of her and her husband
During the same period, taking an average of 89 claims a year, 1,780 Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force veterans would have died from mesothelioma.
On top of that, each year a similar number die from asbestosis – a chronic disease where the lungs harden – and other lung cancers. That’s at least 3,560 asbestos-related deaths in that same 20-year period.
The mesothelioma victims included Bernice Scullion, an RAF air traffic control assistant, who died in 2020 aged just 48. In a statement to her solicitors Irwin Mitchell, Bernice had described working in old, crumbling military installations where she suspected asbestos was present.
Her husband Kevin, 54, was also in the RAF, until 2014. They had trained together in 1994 at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, and worked and lived at other locations that had raised red flags in terms of asbestos. They had three children.
‘There are so many of these unmodernised post-war structures that, in my opinion, aren’t fit to live or work in,’ says Kevin. ‘Most have asbestos in them. But military people have such a can-do attitude that some will ignore the risk and get on with it.’
Then there was Lt Commander Jeffrey Picken, 69. During 37 years as a marine engineer, he served on five ships and five submarines, all while being exposed to asbestos that had been installed in the vessels for its fire-retardant properties. He died from mesothelioma on New Year’s Day in 2018.
‘You could say the asbestos was there to protect him and his crewmates,’ says his widow Veronica, 77. ‘But it killed him, and probably some of them, too.’
If the failure to protect the servicemen and women who protect us is a national disgrace, then so, too, is the way we treat them when they develop the disease.
Pictured: Lt Commander Jeffrey Picken, 69, who served as a marine engineer for 37 years. ‘You could say the asbestos was there to protect him and his crewmates,’ says his widow Veronica, ‘but it killed him, and probably some of them, too’
Pictured: Veronica Picken and Lt Commander Jeffrey Picken on their golden wedding anniversary in 2017
Veronica’s (pictured) beloved husband Jeffrey died in 2017 due to exposure to asbestos during his lengthy career in the Royal Navy
Because, when it comes to levels of compensation and medical help, our veterans fare poorly in comparison with civilian mesothelioma victims.
Until 2016, personnel who had been exposed to asbestos before 1987 weren’t allowed to seek compensation or redress because of the doctrine of Crown Immunity, which protects the Armed Forces from legal action.
This was significant because the period between being exposed to asbestos and developing symptoms can range from 20 to 60 years.
The Government’s Mesothelioma Act changed that, yet still left veterans at a disadvantage – their maximum claim is £140,000, whereas civilians can average around £250,000. Their families cannot make any claims after they die under MoD rules – while civilians’ families suing former employers in public courts can.
The charity Mesothelioma UK describes these inequalities as ‘disgraceful’.
The Daily Mail’s Asbestos: Britain’s Hidden Killer campaign has highlighted that, in the UK, more than 5,000 people a year die from diseases related to these toxic fibres, making it our biggest workplace killer.
We are calling on the Government to introduce a phased removal of asbestos from all public buildings – starting with schools and hospitals – and to introduce a national database to register where exactly it is.
Today we argue that this should include military homes, barracks, workplaces and equipment. Our forces personnel have our backs. We should have theirs.
Veronica Picken and Lt Cdr Picken met in 1966 and were married in 1967 (pictured above on their wedding day)
The Daily Mail’s Asbestos: Britain’s Hidden Killer campaign has highlighted that, in the UK, more than 5,000 people a year die from diseases related to these toxic fibres, making it our biggest workplace killer
Until 2016, personnel who had been exposed to asbestos before 1987 weren’t allowed to seek compensation or redress because of the doctrine of Crown Immunity, which protects the Armed Forces from legal action. Pictured: A person holding asbestos fibres
We include ‘equipment’ deliberately. In 2023, the Ministry of Defence admitted that 2,699 pieces of military hardware contained asbestos.
These included all Vanguard class nuclear-armed and Astute-class nuclear-powered submarines; hundreds of Challenger tanks; more than a thousand Warrior and Bulldog armoured vehicles; Chinook, Gazelle and Puma helicopters; Daring-class Type 45 destroyers; Type 23 frigates; Stormer and Harpoon missiles… the list goes on.
Lt Col Harvey is proud to have served his country for almost four decades in the Royal Corps of Transport, later to become the Royal Logistic Corps.
But he says a number of the buildings or barracks where he and Jacqueline, a teacher, stayed – including in the UK, Northern Ireland and Africa – were from an era where asbestos was commonplace.
‘By the time I left, in 2005, the Army was much stricter and more aware of the dangers of asbestos,’ he says. ‘But in the 1960s and 70s, there was less understanding.
‘Once I got over 70, I began to hear of a lot of my peer group dying of cancers, and I suspected much of this was down to asbestos. It was everywhere years ago. But many old soldiers just shut their gob, get on with it and quietly fade away.’
When I tell him about the numbers of veterans’ deaths from asbestos each year, he says: ‘That does not surprise me at all.’
Assistant air traffic controller Bernice Scullion was fairly certain she had been exposed at a number of locations.
The Daily Mail is calling on the Government to introduce a phased removal of asbestos from all public buildings – starting with schools and hospitals – and to introduce a national database to register where exactly it is (file image)
Ms Picken said that her beloved husband first got symptoms in 2016. She added: ‘When they said it was mesothelioma, which I’d never heard of, and they told us the prognosis, I fell apart. They tried a couple of drugs on him, but he died in pain. He lasted just over a year’
At RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, where considerable refurbishment was under way, she recalled in a statement before she died: ‘There were a lot of pre-Second World War buildings on site, and notices around the site warning about the presence of asbestos.’
At RAF Northolt, west London, Bernice remembered filthy, dusty repairs being carried out to the Operations Centre, where asbestos was later found.
And at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire she worked in dirty basements with maps that she had to shake clean of dust every day. She later found out that large amounts of asbestos were found in the building where she worked.
In 2014 Bernice, from Northern Ireland, began to experience abdominal pains. She was told she had mesothelioma, but then the diagnosis was withdrawn – only to be confirmed later.
Possibly because of her age or because she was on clinical trials of new drugs, she lasted three years after her diagnosis in 2017.
That is more than most but, by any standards, 48 is young to die from this disease. ‘She was a proper Irishwoman,’ says husband Kevin. ‘Loved her kids. Loved family life. Loved her parents and her friends. I loved her very much.’
Now a private contractor on an RAF base, he thinks some things have improved – if asbestos were found, a specialist would be brought in to clear it, for example – but he adds: ‘I could probably walk into the crew room and ask, “Does anybody know what mesothelioma is?” I don’t think any of them would.’
The poor state of military accommodation is often cited as a factor in asbestos exposure. As of March 2023, 47,800 properties were designated for service occupation.
In 2023 in response to a Freedom of Information request issued by the Lib Dems, the MoD admitted that 72 per cent of service accommodation contained ‘low risk’ asbestos. Pictured: asbestos fibres (file image)
A Parliamentary Defence Committee report into the state of this accommodation in December concluded: ‘A third of Single Living Accommodation and two-thirds of Service Families Accommodation are in such poor condition that they are essentially no longer fit for purpose.’
In 2023 in response to a Freedom of Information request put by the Lib Dems, the MoD admitted that 72 per cent of service accommodation contained ‘low risk’ asbestos. However, among clinicians and the courts, it has long been accepted that there is no such thing as a safe level of exposure to the material.
‘We know and understand that defence jobs have a very high risk of injury or death attached to them,’ says Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, which campaigns for workplace safety.
‘However, those working in the service of their country should be able to expect that their housing, work accommodation and equipment do not pose more of a likely cause of death than hostile combatants.’
If equipment and accommodation weren’t enough for service personnel to worry about, questions have been raised over the levels of care the MoD extends to them while on exercises abroad.
A case brought by 260 mostly former Royal Marines alleges that they were knowingly exposed to asbestos in an area called Skrunda-1 in Latvia in 2018 and 2019. The group, led by former Marine Edward Hill, were concerned about the location in which they were billeted – a crumbling Soviet-era control centre – but were not allowed to relocate.
Edward took soil samples which were found to contain high levels of chrysotile – or white – asbestos. The group are seeking compensation. The MoD said it could not comment on live cases.
‘Health and Safety legislation does not extend beyond the UK when armed forces are training overseas,’ says Edward. ‘But the law needs to change. Those in command must be held criminally accountable when they recklessly expose servicemen and women to hazardous substances.’
‘We know and understand that defence jobs have a very high risk of injury or death attached to them,’ says Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, which campaigns for workplace safety
‘After almost 40 years of service, you might expect a letter, or a card, or a bunch of flowers from the Navy when your husband dies. But I received nothing’, Ms Picken said
The final words on such terrible – and completely avoidable – loss of life should go to Veronica Picken, widow of Lt Cdr Picken who served proudly on so many Royal Navy ships and submarines before his death in 2017.
‘We met in 1966 and were married in 1967,’ she says. ‘Before he died, we managed to celebrate our golden wedding anniversary.
‘Jeff got his first symptoms – pain in the ribs – in 2016. When they said it was mesothelioma, which I’d never heard of, and they told us the prognosis, I fell apart.
‘They tried a couple of drugs on him, but he died in pain. He lasted just over a year.
‘I’d like to see the MoD do something about the asbestos our servicemen and women are being exposed to all the time. But I’d also like to see something else – more compassion and more understanding for the families affected by this.
‘After almost 40 years of service, you might expect a letter, or a card, or a bunch of flowers from the Navy when your husband dies. But I received nothing. Perhaps that, as much as anything, shows how much the Armed Forces care for the people whose lives they’re putting at risk.’
