Rob Homans always aspired to be a soldier. Although he was a promising young footballer, he declined offers from Birmingham City scouts to enlist in the military.

By the time he was 19, he was off for his first tour of Afghanistan. At 21, he went on his second, fighting for his country.

But despite embarking on his dream career, his mother Dawn Turner believes what he endured in the army ‘wrecked’ his mind. 

She told the Daily Mail: ‘When he came back, he was broken.’

In August, the former Royal Artillery brigadier was found dead at the age of 35. He had taken his own life.

After leaving the army, Rob faced significant challenges. Eager to rebuild his life, he reached out to his council for housing assistance.

Under the Armed Forces Covenant, veterans like Rob should receive priority for social housing. However, Worcester City Council deemed him not a priority, according to his mother, and instead offered him a house in multiple occupation (HMO) far from his support network.

In August, Rob attended his brother’s wedding, where he danced, smiled, and reconnected with friends. In the following week, he reached out to old army friends and caught up with them.

He had tried to take his own life multiple times over the years but had always been saved.

Tragically, that August, he succeeded in taking his own life. Ms. Turner, 56, a mental health advocate, tearfully expressed, “It doesn’t seem real. I hope he knew how much we loved him. I feel like I’ve failed him.”

‘I just want to hold the government accountable. If he were here, I would tell him I will fight until my dying breath. The gloves are off. I’m not going to stop.

‘I’m going to get justice for him and prevent this from happening again. They need to pay for what they’ve done.’

Ms Turner said no one from the MOD has been in touch since her son’s suicide. 

She added: ‘He was deployed to Afghanistan, and he’d just turned 19. Then, when he was 21, he was back again. It didn’t seem right for him to go over at that age.

‘He tried to keep [what he saw] away from me. He said, “I’ve got enough images in my head.”

‘He said, “There were things that happened in Afghanistan and I’ll tell you bits but I’m not going to go into detail because I don’t want you to have those images.”

‘The training was quite brutal. I’ve spoken to a lot of veterans saying that the actual combat wasn’t the problem; it was the method of training that wrecked their heads.

‘He asked whether I’d sit with him all night and just talked through everything that happened.

‘The next morning, he clapped his hands together and said, “Well, that’s that. We can move on now.”

‘I think we both knew it wasn’t that simple.’

After Rob left the army in 2015, he was enjoying a new job and had just got married.

Dawn said: ‘We thought life was quite rosy. And then he started having physical as well as mental problems.

‘He had something wrong with his digestive system and he was forever having headaches.

‘He lost most of his hearing in one ear. They put that down to firing guns.

‘Then his marriage broke down and that inevitably came with a lot of things.

‘He lost his home, he lost his job and he had to move back and be with me.

‘He had to start all over again and that’s when the demons come out to play. He was really suffering. He was suicidal.’

They went to a veterans charity for mental health support but were told the waiting list to see someone was six months.

‘That’s when his first suicide attempt was, in 2019,’ Dawn said.

After that, she set up Stepway, a mental health charity supporting veterans.

‘We saved so many lives but couldn’t save my son,’ she said.

Rob’s second suicide attempt was in 2023. He tried again in 2024.

‘May this year I had a call from him and he was upset on the phone and he said, “Sorry mum, I just can’t. I just can’t do this anymore. I love you but I can’t be here anymore.”

‘I called the police and we went looking for him.’

Thankfully, Dawn and the police found him but the officers refused to section him.

‘Nobody was listening,’ she said.

‘We’d gone down to Housing for the third time because he was sofa surfing and had nowhere to call home. He just needed support.

‘Housing said, “You’re looking at two years before you get anything.”

‘I said, “A veteran’s supposed to be getting priority.” She said, “No, I’ve got plenty on my list, he’s just got to stand in line with everybody else. He’s not a priority.”‘

The second time he went to Housing, the local authority offered him an HMO in a known drug-addled area.

‘Rob has been self-medicating with cocaine and he’d been clean for eight months, so he didn’t want to go in that situation, plus he didn’t want to be away from his friends and family.

‘[The woman from Housing] said, if he doesn’t take this HMO, then I’ll have no choice but to close his housing application down and put on the system that he’s not engaging. And that’s what she did.

‘I went over to meet him and he’s outside and crying.

‘He said, “The system is just broke mum, look.” And he pointed over to these two guys that were sleeping in the doorway, and they were veterans too.

‘He said, “I’ve got nothing against any section of the community. All I’m asking for is fairness. That hotel over there is full of refugees. Why can’t I have that? If they can house them, why can’t they house me temporarily till I get on my feet? I fought for this country and it means nothing.”

‘I think he did die for his country. Because of system failure, through mental health, through housing.

‘The whole system’s just broken. I blame the system and the government because it’s them that make the policies.

‘It doesn’t matter what he tried; he just kept having doors slammed in his face. 

‘I think, with me in that position with all those contacts, if I can’t make a difference, what hope has any of the family got? 

‘You can never support your own, can you? 

‘His brother got married in August.

‘At the wedding, he turned to [a family friend] and said, “Can you keep [my medals] safe? They don’t fit on my suit properly.”

‘I never thought any more of it.

‘He called everybody, all his old army buddies, his friends, just catching up generally, arranging to meet. 

‘He passed away on August 22. My eldest son and his wife were on honeymoon.’

The question his family have now is whether Rob suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of his time in the army.

They believe his symptoms match, but because the local morgue was closed on a bank holiday, Rob’s brain had deteriorated too much to conduct a satisfactory post-mortem, Dawn said.

She has now set up a new campaign, Rob’s Army, which is ‘fighting for justice for veterans’. 

Its mission is to ‘stand against the system failures that have let down those who served our country with honour’ and ‘demand accountability [and] real change’.

Dawn added: ‘To make change, there needs to be a clear, long-term plan at Government level, one that is cross-party and protected from the ebb and flow of politics.

‘The Office for Veterans’ Affairs should stand as an independent body, constant and accountable, regardless of which party is in power. 

‘Without this stability, nothing changes. We continue to see policies rewritten, structures dismantled, and communities left to pick up the pieces every time leadership shifts. 

‘At present, coordinating charities at ground level feels like herding cats. 

‘Dedicated organisations and individuals are working tirelessly, but without an overarching framework or consistent direction from the top, efforts are fragmented, duplicated, and often undermined by bureaucracy. 

‘The Armed Forces community continues to suffer. Funding should flow to where it makes the greatest impact: the delivery of projects on the ground.’

A Worcester City Council spokesman said: ‘Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of Robert Homans, and all those who knew him.’

The council refused to comment on Rob’s housing issue. 

Worcestershire Coroner Service said: ‘We are unable to comment on ongoing investigations, but of course will continue to work closely with the family as the investigation progresses.’ 

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said:  ‘Our deepest condolences go out to Robert’s loved ones, and our thoughts and sympathies are with them.

‘The Government is committed to renewing the contract with those who served and have served. 

‘More than £25million has been invested into Operation Courage since the election, so that veterans in England can continue to access specialist NHS mental health and wellbeing services.

‘This Government has also committed £3.5million to veteran homelessness services including Operation Fortitude, the single referral pathway for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and the £50million commitment for the Valour programme is new government money and will transform veterans’ access to essential care across the country.’