Iraq

Campaign launched over MOD next of kin procedures

A young mother has launched a campaign group to make sure service personnel understand the implications of naming next of kin.

Paula Black from Newport is worried her experience could be repeated by other unmarried mothers and fathers.

She only found out L/Cpl Richard Gotts, father of her daughter Tegan, had died during army service when she read tributes on a gaming forum.

L/Cpl Gotts was serving in Iraq with the army when Ms Black gave birth to their daughter in 2006.

Just over a year later, by which time the couple had split up, he died after a heart attack.

She says his two ex-wives, with whom he has children, were notified by an MOD official.

Ms Black was not informed because L/Cpl Gotts had not named Tegan as his next of kin and the couple had never married.

When he failed to get in touch, she visited a gaming forum she knew he used, and discovered he had died.

She said she felt "absolutely devastated, distraught, angry - very angry that I hadn't been notified in person by the MOD themselves - and just shock. I just couldn't believe that I was reading that he was dead on a gaming forum."

Ms Black has launched an online group called The Forgotten Children of the Armed Forces Support Group, encouraging servicemen and women to stipulate who they want contacted in the event of their death.

The MOD said it went to "considerable lengths" to notify next of kin.

A spokesperson added: "Any additional person previously nominated by the deceased are notified first and in an appropriate manner. A minimum 24-hour period of grace is then observed before any details are made public so that the information can be passed on to other relatives."