GORDON BROWN’S pledge to honour members of the public for heroism during terrorist attacks has been labelled a sham after dozens of civilians who went to the rescue of the 7/7 bombing victims were snubbed for awards.

Pleas to honour ordinary civilians have been rejected as undeserving - even though more than two dozen public sector staff, some of whom were doing desk jobs, have been honoured for their conduct on 7/7.

Martin Bell, the former independent MP who has called for a review of the honours system, said: “It is the usual - senior people are rewarded and the little guys are not.”

Brown made the pledge last July at the launch of a book he wrote on heroism, titled Britain’s Everyday Heroes. He said: “It is right that we look at how our honours system can recognise those in our emergency services and members of the public who showed such bravery and heroism in the face of the recent terrorist attacks.”

However, Tim Coulson, a teacher who went to the aid of the victims of the Edgware Road tube station suicide bombing in July 2005, was snubbed after his wife Judy applied on his behalf this year.

Coulson smashed his way into the stricken carriage from another train adjacent to it in the tunnel and gave first aid to the injured and dying. One man, whose body had been severed at the waist by the blast, died in his arms.

Coulson, 53, who lives in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, still suffers from post traumatic stress and was forced to retire early from his job after collapsing at work.

Although her husband’s case was backed by testimonies from those he helped and witnesses to his heroism, the Cabinet Office told Judy Coulson in a letter that “honours are awarded to people for meritorious service over a sustained period and not specifically for saving someone’s life”.

But various public sector workers were given a range of awards in the new year’s honours list two years ago in direct recognition of their conduct on 7/7. They included CBEs for the heads of Transport for London and the London Underground, OBEs for senior representatives of the police, ambulance service and Salvation Army, and MBEs for those, such as the supervisor at Russell Square Tube station, who helped injured passengers.

The range of Queen’s honours also includes four gallantry awards, ranging from the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery to the George Cross, which are open to civilians who show courage while trying to save others’ lives. The Cabinet Office web-site, which details the gallantry awards, invites nominations from members of the public.

The George Cross, which can be given to either military personnel or civilians and is equivalent to the Victoria Cross, has been granted 159 times since its creation in 1940. Its most recent recipient is Corporal Mark Wright, who died in Afghanistan in 2006 while leading fellow soldiers through a minefield.

The Queen’s Commendation for Bravery is awarded more frequently, although mostly to police officers. A year ago it was given to Michael Winstanley, a civilian, for helping to rescue two people from a crashed light aircraft.

Critics said the revelation demonstrated why the honours list needed to be urgently reviewed. Bell said: “They promised a reform of the honours system and this was a classic case in which it could have been delivered and it hasn’t.”

Peter Zimonjic, the author of a new book on the 7/7 bombings called Into the Darkness, said he was aware of at least two dozen members of the public who had performed similar acts of bravery to Coulson yet none had been officially recognised.

Zimonjic, who was nearby when the Edgware Road bomb exploded, said: “Gordon Brown has said ‘we want to honour ordinary people’ and yet the reality is that it is just hot air.

“If someone like Tim Coulson is not deserving of official recognition then what kind of signal does that send out?

“I know that when the honours were announced for all the public sector workers for carrying out their jobs well on 7/7, it did annoy those members of the public who came to the rescue themselves. They felt entirely overlooked.”

Julian Spicer, chairman of the Royal Humane Society which is to give Coulson a bravery award in the spring, said the government was “ridiculous” to hand honours to public servants for their actions on 7/7 while snubbing members of the public.

Rachel North, a victim of 7/7, said: “My personal opinion is that people who performed acts of heroism on that day should be publicly thanked for it.”

Coulson, who was not aware of his wife’s application to the Cabinet Office at the time, said he still gets flashbacks from 7/7.

He said: “The first few moments were about fear for my own life, but following that there was the reality that I was not dead while others were in agony. It was like a trigger that I must do something to help.”

With a handful of other men, Coulson battered through a plate glass window dividing his train’s carriage from the one in which Mohammad Sidique Khan had blown himself up, and climbed through into the unknown.

He said: “I saw things I had never seen in my life before, people in pieces and others who were dying.” He began tending to the wounded, including putting a tourniquet on one man’s leg, before finding a man trapped in a crater where the floor of the carriage had been.

Unable to free him, Coulson climbed out of the carriage and attempted to grasp the man from below, at which point he realised that his lower body had been severed.

Lowering the man to the floor, Coulson held him and said a prayer as he died in his arms.

Then he went to the aid of a woman who was slumped against the tunnel wall having been blown out of the train by the blast.

He tended to her wounds and comforted her for more than an hour until help arrived from the emergency services.

In a statement she provided to the Cabinet Office, the woman, whose identity is being withheld by The Sunday Times to protect her privacy, said: “It takes an instinct that the majority of us don’t possess to throw yourself into potential danger rather than the instinct for self-preservation.

“It is hard to put into words the kind of gratitude I feel towards Tim. He is indeed the bravest person I’ve known and I feel deserves the recognition of his bravery.”

The Cabinet Office declined to comment.

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