FEATURE: Stamp Of Approval?

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
December 2, 2008

THE grieving mother of a soldier killed in Iraq has joined a campaign to have her son and other casualties of the war commemorated on Royal Mail stamps.

Margaret Thomson's son Robert, 22, was killed when a trench he was digging collapsed, burying him alive, in Basra Palace.

The 51-year-old, from Whitburn, West Lothian, said today the pain of losing her son - who was serving as a sapper in the Royal Engineers - was "just as severe as the day it happened", on January 31, 2004.

Mrs Thomson spoke out just before the opening of artist Steve McQueen's Queen and Country exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art which features facsimile postage stamp sheets of portraits of those who have been killed in the conflict so far.

The Thomsons are the 136th family who have lost loved ones serving in Iraq to join the campaign for a special set of stamps featuring the faces of the fallen.

A total of 176 British service personnel have been killed in the conflict.

Mrs Thomson, who works as a cleaner at a bowls club and has another son, Stevie, 19, said: "I am still extremely proud of my son, and I'm honoured that he is being commemorated alongside all of the other soldiers here today. I still miss him terribly every day.

"The army didn't tell us the full story of how he died, and we didn't find out until months afterwards what actually happened.

"He was digging in a trench that was 3.2m deep - well above head height - when the trench collapsed inwards. The army initially told us he died quickly, but he was trapped in there for seven-and-a-half hours. During that time I know he would have been crying out for me. He needed his mum and I wasn't there to help him."

Sapper Thomson joined the army in 2000 in search of a trade after Motorola laid off 3000 staff during the closure of its 'Silicon Glen' plant in West Lothian.

Despite gaining seven standard grades and nine highers, Mr Thomson struggled to find work and the Army seemed to be the best option.

Mrs Thomson added: "He took to it really well. He started to care about the people he was fighting for and he loved the camaraderie of the Army."

Sapper Thomson's 18 Royal Engineer comrades, who live as far away as Liverpool and Manchester, still visit his mother every year on the anniversary of his death. Every one of them has now left the army.

She said: "It's so heartwarming that the boys still come to see me. They'll never forget him."

The Queen and Country exhibition opens at the modern art gallery tomorrow. The art work was created by official war artist and Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen, in collaboration with 136 families, including 14 from Scotland, whose loved ones were killed in Iraq.

Until the stamps are officially issued by Royal Mail the artist considers the Queen and Country project to be incomplete.

A Royal Mail Spokeswoman said: "The role and sacrifice of Britain's servicemen and women play a key role in our special stamps programme every year.

"Royal Mail receives around 3000 requests every year for special stamp issues, but only ten subjects can be chosen. Therefore, it is impossible to accommodate every request."