People call me the face of the Falklands. It left a mark I can’t wash away
– says Simon Weston


Return ... Simon Weston at the war memorial in Port Stanley



NEXT month sees the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War.

There were 255 British deaths during the 74-day conflict and 20-year-old Simon Weston was very nearly among them.

He was aboard RFA Sir Galahad when it was bombed by Argentinian jets.

He suffered 46 per cent burns and his battle-scarred face is still a potent symbol of the sacrifices made during the conflict.

Three decades on, Simon has made an emotional journey back to the British islands as Argentina again lays claim to them.

Here, the ex-soldier, now 50, shares his experience of returning to the South Atlantic.



THE sky is a bright blue as I look across a peaceful Fitzroy Bay.

But out there is the spot where the RFA Sir Galahad was hit by Argentine bombs that killed 48 of my comrades and changed my life in a flash.

I've never seen the Falklands looking like this. The place looks stunningly beautiful as I stand here, 30 years on.







But the warmth of the sun on my back can't shift the pain that I feel as I look at the memorial to 32 of my fellow Welsh Guardsmen.

They lost their lives on the same horrific June day that left me with 46 per cent burns, scarring me physically and mentally for ever. But these friends, they paid a much higher price.

The words are there in Welsh: "Yn angof ni chânt fod." It means: "We will remember them." And I do, every day.

I look at their names now — Tony Burke, Jim Carlyle, Ian Dale, who shared my barracks, Sergeant Cliff Elley, who I played rugby with, and all my other pals.

I bow my head because I know it was simply a few seconds of fate that meant my name was not carved there beside them on that piece of Welsh stone. I was the luckiest person on board that day. But today my sorrow turns to a smile when I see a beer bottle lying here, as if left by someone who just wanted to have a quiet drink with the lads. They would have liked that.

I have come to the Falkland Islands a good few times before, and it is a place that holds a very bittersweet place in my heart.

But on my trip to mark this incredibly important anniversary, I hope to close the circle and lay some ghosts to rest.

People say I am the face of the Falklands. I am indelibly stamped with it. It left a mark on me that I can't wash away.

I was the closest survivor to one of the 500lb bombs when it went off, about ten to 12ft in front of me. I was just lucky.






I was on the roadway that led to the back of the ship. I was walking up to pull my friend off the top of boxes. He was sleeping and I thought it would be funny to watch him wake up as he was falling through the air. It was just a prank.

I saw the bomb coming through. It detonated, a fireball happened first, the fuel ignited then the bomb exploded. It was just all hell and carnage. Somehow I managed to get out.

Three lads in front of me took the blast. I witnessed an awful lot of horrible things. I don't remember the pain, I just remember being in pain. I remember suffering but I don't remember the actual feeling.

I don't remember the sound of the bomb going off — you'd think you would, but they say you never hear the bullet that kills you.

I survived and I was very lucky — there were 48 people who didn't.

I was taken by helicopter to the community centre at Fitzroy. They knocked me out because I was going into shock and they took me to the Red And Green Life Machine, a makeshift hospital where they operated on people.

I've been back to see it on this trip, for the programme Return to the Falklands, on ITV1 on Tuesday at 9pm.

It's just a derelict building now. Standing there brought back how difficult these 30 years have been for me mentally.

The physical side of getting well is not as difficult as the mental side. I was all over the place for a long time. I look at my life now and think, 'Well, I've been blessed with all the wonderful surgery I've had.' But when you look at the mental side there was so little attention paid to that.





We were ignored completely — I know senior people say that didn't happen, but it did. Senior military people in the UK said we lacked moral fibre. That makes me so angry. I suffered really badly for a long time and nobody really knew because I was doing so many things. I was in the public eye so everybody assumed I was just getting on with my life and pulling myself together — but it wasn't the case.

The Falklands War saw the end of 255 military personnel and three civilians from our side and an awful lot more from the Argentine side. It was a tragedy.

It's a funny thing but the saddest place for me in the Falklands is the Argentine military cemetery.

Row upon row of white crosses, rosary beads tinkling in the wind, plastic flowers fading in the elements because people don't bring fresh ones often.

You look around and there's so many unknown soldiers in the graves. There's one grave that's got five names on it — that means there are the body parts of five people in there.

The Argentine conscripts were barely through training so hadn't been issued with dogtags and they couldn't identify them.

But what makes me even sadder is there is no fitting memorial to the Argentine ship the General Belgrano, which was sunk with the loss of 323 lives.

It had to be done. Whether or not people think it was steaming away, it still carried several thousand men who could have added to the conflict and possibly turned it around.

But there's no monument to those 323 anywhere here. I know that we won the war — and history is always written by the victor — but ultimately I think there should be an acknowledgment for those people. They lost their lives, they were human beings, they were sent to do a job by politicians who had a different agenda.


Now that agenda seems to be raising its horrible head again with the sabre-rattling that is coming from Argentina. Their president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has been exerting a tight stranglehold on the Falkland Islands.

She's being incredibly cruel and playing mind games with the people here, who have every right to choose their own future.

Argentina's blockade of the islands means fresh fruit and vegetables are very expensive. I saw a sweet potato in the supermarket in Stanley for £6.60.

The fact is that the British have had these islands for 250 years and there is nothing here that is mildly marked with Argentina apart from that sorry graveyard.

The Falklands are 450 miles from Argentine shores.

If we go by the logic of 450 miles being able to claim anything then anybody could try and claim Britain. We could claim any part of Scandinavia. It becomes ludicrous.

It's amazing how the Argentine FIFA representative has said he would never vote for England to get the World Cup.

He calls the British pirates, yet it's the Argentinians who harass the supply ships that come here, impounding vessels and taking innocent ships that are going about their lawful business. That's called piracy, so it's the Argentinians that are guilty.

Argentina should stop the bullying and leave these people and their beautiful islands be.

The legacy of the conflict here should be harmony. We have raked over the coals of that war in every possible way. Now the islands should be allowed to look to their bright future.

On this journey, I have been looking for myself again, trying to find that young lad just about to play a trick on his mate 30 years ago. I think I have found him. He is here with me and, like the Falklands, we hope to have a peaceful future together.