Causes of deaths among veterans of the Falklands campaign: 1982 to 2012

/ thinkdefence

There is an enduring perception that more personnel have committed suicide since 1982 than those killed during operations

It seems Defence Statistics have produced the definitive answer

Published today…

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/causes-of-deaths-among-the-uk-armed-forces-veterans-of-the-falklands-campaign-1982-to-2012

8 thoughts on “Causes of deaths among veterans of the Falklands campaign: 1982 to 2012”

  1. Made my way through , a very thorough study . A few things , the Gurkhas often did not register their date of birth so were given one

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  2. Excellent piece of work. What surprised me was the number that died in post-war air accidents.

    Of course the dick-head classes will take no notice and continue to perpetuate their mythical cobblers.

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  3. Concur- an excellent piece of work by DASA (another little branch of the MOD which does great work with little or no fuss) I haven’t checked in detail but isn’t this the same report as last year ? https://www.gov.uk/government/news/falklands-official-statistics-released or did I miss something ?

    My only quibble is the strapline which seems a tad defensive ie simply to refute the allegation that more FI veterans were suicides than dies in the op.

    The one number which really caught my eye was the initial count of those getting a gong:

    In total, 25,948 UK Armed Forces personnel received the South Atlantic medal,
    awarded for service in the 1982 Falklands Campaign

    wow. Is it just me surprised at that ?

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  4. @ twecky

    I think its a very good example to show how much an effort it was, and how much people it involved as well.
    As time goes by, people seem to get more and more complacent about how it went, it really was a close thing.

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  5. The one number which really caught my eye was the initial count of those getting a gong:
    In total, 25,948 UK Armed Forces personnel received the South Atlantic medal,
    awarded for service in the 1982 Falklands Campaign
    wow. Is it just me surprised at that ?

    Are you surprised it’s not more, or surprised it’s so many? Given that it’s all three services, plus RFA and (presumably) Merchant Navy, that’s more or less what I would have expected.

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  6. @tweckyspat

    Breakdown of South Atlantic Medal issues here:

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_atlantic_medal#Recipients

    “…The rosette remains an unusual feature for a British medal and was used in this case because otherwise fewer than two hundred medals would have been issued to the Royal Air Force. The vast majority of the medals were issued with a rosette whereas over 90% of the medals issued to the Royal Air Force are without the rosette and thus rarer, the recipients having been stationed on Ascension Island, some 3,300 nmi (6,100 km) north of the Falkland Islands and the war zone…”

    The end date of the qualifying period for the issue of the medal without rosette has recently been extended from 12 July to 21 October 1982 i.a.w. this:

    Click to access 20140730-%20Guidance%20-%20Medal%20Review-new.pdf

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  7. Be interesting to see the suicide rates against civil cohort for those who were actually in combat, particularly on the ground.
    Seeing as fewer veterans died than in the civil cohort does this mean we need to get involved in more wars?

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  8. Difficult bit is finding a comparable civil cohort. Squaddies will by definition be employable (because “squaddie” is a job), physically and mentally healthy, etc – you’re selecting a group that should be inherently less prone to suicide anyway.

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