Tony Blair should be charged with war crimes for ordering British troops to invade Iraq, families of servicemen killed in the conflict told the official inquiry into the campaign yesterday.

The former senior civil servant heading the inquiry and his panel were confronted by an angry group after inviting bereaved relatives to give their views. They were unanimous in condemning the war as illegal.

Sir John Chilcot, who will start to take evidence from witnesses next month, was left in no doubt that the representative sample of the 179 families who lost loved ones in the 2003-09 campaign wanted someone to be called to account.

“I hold Tony Blair personally responsible for the death of my son. There’s a lot of anger here, and I would like Tony Blair to be indicted as a war criminal,” said Deirde Gover. She is the mother of Flight Lieutenant Kristian Gover of the RAF’s 33 Squadron and met Sir John in private at a London hotel, along with 20 other families.

Flight Lieutenant Gover died at the age of 30 when his Puma helicopter crashed in an accident at Basra airport, southern Iraq, on July 19, 2004. Unmarried, he was described after his death as “a very professional and well-respected pilot”.

“I’d like someone to apportion blame for what happened in Iraq. Tony Blair lied to his Cabinet, he lied to the Government, he lied to the country. He deceived the country about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction because he had an agenda with [President] George Bush,” Mrs Gover, 63, who lives in Paris, said.

She went up to Mr Blair at the Guildhall in London after the Iraq memorial service last week. “I told him he was responsible for killing my son and he replied, ‘Let’s discuss this’. I couldn’t talk to him. He said, ‘What about Saddam Hussein’, and I thought, ‘What about Robert Mugabe?’,” she said.

Sir John, more used to the language of Whitehall, was said to have been taken aback by the force of the statements, which came not just from Mrs Gover but from the majority of the families present in the room at the Thistle Westminster Hotel in Victoria.

She and the others said the atmosphere had been a mixture of anger and emotion.

Sir John warned them that he was not running a judicial inquiry. “We’re not a court of law,” he said. However, when he was asked what action he would take if a witness revealed a criminal act had been committed, Sir John said he would be able to refer the matter to the Attorney-General.

The first person to speak after Sir John had reassured the assembled families that he would conduct a fair inquiry was retired Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Mildinhall. His son, Lieutenant Colin Mildinhall, 26, of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, was killed by a roadside bomb while travelling in a Land Rover in Basra on May 28, 2006. Lance Corporal Paul Farrelly, 27, also died.

“I would particularly like the Iraq inquiry to look at the whole representation of intelligence, how it was used or misused in the approach to this war. I believe this country has been badly let down and been lied to. I would like to see some accountability,” Colonel Mildinhall said.

Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon, 34, of the Intelligence Corps was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra on September 11, 2005, said: “Tony Blair and George Bush have become hate figures for us. Do I want to have Mr Blair prosecuted for taking us to war? It’s a lovely thought, it would be good if that happened.

“My son also fought in the first Gulf War, so he was involved in one that was legal and the other which was illegal,” he said. “I cannot understand any of the so-called reasons that we went to war. Weapons of mass destruction? They don’t exist. Regime change? An entirely immoral thing to do — and if it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to do, why haven’t we gone into Zimbabwe?”

Colin Redpath, father of Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath of the Irish Guards who was killed at the age of 22 when his lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover was blown up on August 8, 2007, west of Basra city, criticised the Government for failing to provide his son with a “proper vehicle”. He and an Irish Guards colleague, Lance Sergeant Chris Casey, who was also killed, were “just sitting ducks”.

“The mood of the meeting [with Sir John] was that this had been an illegal war,” Mr Redpath, 52, a self-employed tradesman, said.

The widow of an airman killed in the worst single incident for British forces during the war called for the inquiry to look at why UK forces were sent to fight in 2003 despite being ill-prepared.

Kellie Merritt’s husband, Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, 35, an Australian serving with the RAF, was one of ten servicemen who died when their Hercules transport aircraft was shot down near Baghdad in January 2005.

She said: “The political decision to go to war was taken in circumstances where the United Kingdom’s material resources were deficient. [For example] The Hercules was worn out and ill-protected.”

Yesterday’s meeting was the first in a series across Britain which will take place this month. There is a meetingone for veterans today (WED) in London and further sessions in Manchester on Friday, in Edinburgh on October 21, in Bristol on October 23 and in Belfast on October 28.

Times Recommends

• Google to digitise Iraqi artefacts
• Renault angers parents by naming new car Zoé
• Analysis: most lawless part of Philippines