Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Defence

If any impartial study were made of the first board of inquiry, the coroner's report, my actual comments and the subsequent service board of inquiry, it would find no evidence that I had ever tried to besmirch the reputation of Major Bristow in any way at all. I had no control over the original board of inquiry, or the subsequent service inquiry; they were controlled by the Army. It is right to say that they came to slightly different conclusions, but I have never attacked the reputation of a serving officer, although the hon. Lady tries repeatedly to say that I did. She really should not try to suggest that I did.