EXCLUSIVE Hero policewoman blown up by IRA bomb as she saved Harrods shoppers reveals she was forced to quit the police because of her injuries but didn't qualify for a medal because she didn't die

Daily Mail​

04-05-2025

A police officer hurt when an IRA bomb killed six people in Harrods including three cops has revealed she was forced to quit the police because of her injuries but didn't qualify for a medal because she didn't die.
Pam White, then-24, was blown off her feet just days before Christmas on December 17, 1983, by an IRA car bomb that took the lives of her colleagues Inspector Stephen Dodd, 34, Sergeant Noel Lane, 28, and PC Jane Arbuthnot, 22.
However, although she performed the same role as her colleagues who were killed that day, only they and their families will receive medal recognition.
That is because while there is a medal for emergency service workers killed in the line of duty, the Elizabeth Emblem created last year, and other medals for gallantry, there is not one for those who have not died but were forced to quit the force because of the injuries they sustained.
Pam, from Tabley, Cheshire, is now backing fellow former police officer Tom Curry's campaign for a medal for injured members of the emergency services who have been forced to quit the police because of their injuries.
She said: 'It would mean a lot to me because the bravery shown on that day would be recognised.
'I really feel that all the officers who were there at the bombing should have received an award for their bravery.
'People might say that it is only a medal but it's an actual recognition that all that you've gone through wasn't in vain.
'Nobody knows what I did on that day. Nobody knows what the other officers did.
'All I can say is that all the officers that were injured stayed at the scene. Not one of the officers thought, 'Oh, I've been injured. I'm going to get out of here.'
'We all stayed. Didn't think of ourselves. We were thinking of keeping the members of the public safe and try to limit any further casualties. That went beyond our duty.
'All we received at the time was a letter from the commissioner. Having this award would mean so much to me and the other officers.
'I was 24 years old with everything going for me and then I didn't. I have had some tough times - everybody does but I have fought through them.'
PC Pam White did not hesitate in guiding members of the public to safety despite being 'absolutely terrified' that a second device could detonate at any moment.
She said her police emergency training kicked in and she was determined evacuate shoppers and help the injured.
The bombing had a dramatic impact on her life, with Pam eventually losing her job, her health, her fiancé and her home.
Pam never fully recovered from the horrific ordeal and was medically discharged from the Met three years later.
Pam held on to the anger she felt for both the police and the IRA for nearly two decades until she became a Christian and took part in peace and reconciliation work, which finally gave her the strength to forgive.
Pam, then aged 24, and other officers had been deployed to Harrods department store in London, on December 17, 1983, after the Met received a bomb warning. They had sealed off the streets and were attempting to evacuate the area when the blast ripped through the Hans Crescent entrance at 1.21pm – just 36 minutes after the IRA's alert that it had planted a bomb.
Three members of the public, Kenneth Salvesen, 28, Jasmine Cochrane Patrick, 25, and Philip Geddes, 25, were also killed and 90 others injured after the explosion sent rubble, glass and other debris raining down on to the streets.
Pam and PC Arbuthnot were just 12ft away from the bomb when it exploded.
'I still to this day don't know how I survived,' she said.
'We had just sealed the road off to cars. I had just spoken to Jane and turned my back and the bomb went off.
'Me turning my back could have possibly saved my life. I was later told that if you are facing a blast, the air is sucked out of your lungs and you are killed that way.
'Jane was killed instantly.
'I don't know why I survived. For many years I had survivor's guilt, which I wasn't aware of at the time.
'I couldn't answer the question why I survived. My partner was also a police officer, and he just basically said ''just get on with it''. But I couldn't.
'It was absolute carnage that day. People were lying injured everywhere.
'All the windows at Harrods had been blown out and there was a lot of damage.
'One of my colleagues had cufflinks from a shop mannequin embedded in his kidneys following the blast.
'Those officers not killed by the blast just carried on with their duties.
'We didn't think of doing anything else.
'There was building nearby and I just got people into there. I'd got into the building because the doors had been blown off. Once in there I just got them to lie down.
'I was in total shock that the bomb had exploded.
'There was a Mini parked right opposite the bomb car and we had been informed of another bomb, because it was very common then for the IRA to plant the secondary device.
'I was absolutely terrified that another bomb would go off.
'The sole purpose of the bomb was to lure the police officers to the death.
'The IRA saw it as a war and we were in uniform so they thought we were part of the problem, where I just thought I was a bobby on the beat.
'The IRA said they didn't want to civilian casualties but planting a bomb outside Harrods on the last Saturday before Christmas, what did they expect?
'It's a miracle more weren't killed.
'If people hadn't come out of the other entrance more would have been killed.'
Pam and her colleagues finished their shift and returned to the station. The next day she returned for duty.
'I was told to take a couple of weeks off, which I did.
'I returned to work but it wasn't the same.
'There wasn't any debriefing back then. Now officers would receive very heavy debriefing.
'We've got nothing. They gave us alcohol that the public had donated, told us to have few drinks, forget about it and move on.'
Pam did not suffer any physical injuries following the bombing.
'I didn't have a scratch on me,' she said.
'I couldn't hear anything and the ambulance officer who treated me said that if my hearing didn't return after three days, I'd be permanently deaf. Fortunately, it did but I have suffered from tinnitus ever since.'
She added: 'I was ostracised by some of my colleagues because I didn't suffer any physical injuries.
'They thought I was putting in on. I looked OK on the outside but inside I was different.
'Until the bombing, I was a very confident person. I was young, fit, excited and proud to be a MET police officer.
'I had everything going for me and then it was gone.'
'I joined the Met because my brother was in the police and I saw it as an exciting career.
'But after the bombing that all changed.
'I had to carry on as normal because you couldn't show any weakness but inside I was terrified about doing the job.
'I dreaded calls regarding sudden deaths or something gory because of all the maiming I had seen.
'It affected me badly. I couldn't admit I had a problem because I thought I would lose my job.
'I didn't realize at the time but my career had ended then. I wasn't the same person.
'I was suffering from PTSD.'
A few months after the bombing Pam's health deteriorated.
She said: 'I began suffering from stomach problems and began losing weight.
'I went to see my superintendent and I was dripping with sweat. It was dripping onto his desk.
'He picked up the phone and sent me to the nursing home at Hendon.
'It was a medical facility for officers and I was in there from February to August.
'I was told I had severe anxiety state and I was forced to see a shrink.
'In those days, if you had those kinds of issues in the police, nobody would trust you or want to work with you.
'It was a very tough time.'
'The experience of the bombing was such a shock to my body and that your adrenals produce noradrenaline for no reason.
'That was the reason for the sweating but I didn't know that then. I thought I was dying. I thought I was having a heart attack.
Pam returned to work but was put on restrictive duties in the station's property store.
She was finally medically discharged in July 1986.
Pam said: 'I was very angry because I wasn't given a choice.
'I was discharged on the grounds that I had tinnitus and severe anxiety state, which is now PTSD.
'I'd also developed stomach problems, which was all related to the bomb blast.
'Everything had been taken away from me.
'I was very proud to be a Met Police officer and have many happy memories.
'In the time between the bombing and leaving the police, I lost my relationship as I was engaged, I lost my home, my health, and my career.
'I thought 'why has this happened to me?' I didn't realise how lucky I was to have survived.'
Pam finally let go of her hatred in 2001.
She said: 'I was angry with the IRA for many years. But I found faith and realised that all the internal pain was not good for me.
'You can't vent at an organisation like the IRA. I met the IRA's commander-in-chief on a trip to Ireland and I went up to him to say I forgave the IRA. He said that was appreciated.'
Yet despite this, Pam still suffers flashbacks every time there is a terrorist attack.
'Each bombing takes me back there,' she said. 'I am not good with loud noises and this is a weird one but if I go to the cinema I have to sit on the end seat, or stay in a hotel room at the end of the corridor.'
And while she is glad her colleagues are eligible for the Elizabeth Emblem, she hopes one day police officers like herself who have to leave the job they love because of injuries sustained in the line of duty will receive medals as well.