Gordon Brown has blamed his handwriting after apologising to a grieving mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan for errors in a letter of condolence.
The Prime Minister was said to have been "mortified" when told of Jacqui Janes' distress over the hand-written message, immediately arranging a telephone call to say sorry.
She had accused Mr Brown of being "disrespectful" because the message began "Dear Mrs James" and appeared to contain other spelling errors and a visible correction to her son Jamie's name.
The 20-year-old Grenadier Guardsman was killed by an explosion on October 5.
Mr Brown, who writes personal letters to all bereaved families, said he had not intended to cause any offence and said he took his responsibility to them very seriously. And he extended his apology to Mrs Janes to all of those whose relatives in the armed forces had been killed "if my handwriting is difficult to read".
The Prime Minister's writing has often come under scrutiny, with eyesight problems caused by a rugby accident in his youth blamed by some for the occasionally near-illegible script. A recent check up found no further deterioration in the sight of his one working eye although two minor tears were discovered in the retina.
In a statement, Mr Brown said: "Every time I write a letter to mothers and fathers and partners who have suffered bereavement to express my sincere condolences, it is a moment of personal sadness to me. And I am in awe of the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces. I send a hand-written letter to every family and I often write to more than one member of the family. I have telephoned Jacqui Janes to apologise for any unintended mistake in the letter."
He went on: "To all other families whom I have written to, I can only apologise if my handwriting is difficult to read. I have at all times acted in good faith seeking to do the right thing. I do not think anyone will believe that I write letters with any intent to cause offence."
Mrs Janes, 47, said the Prime Minister "couldn't even be bothered to get our family name right". "That made me so angry. Then I saw he had scribbled out a mistake in Jamie's name. The very least I would expect from Gordon Brown is to get his name right. The letter was scrawled so quickly I could hardly even read it and some of the words were half-finished. It's just disrespectful."
Mr Brown also referred to the dead serviceman by the surname "James" when he listed, at Commons question time last month, the 37 members of the armed forces killed in Afghanistan during MPs' summer recess. The slip was corrected in the official record of proceedings, known as Hansard. His spokesman said that it was "only human occasionally to stumble on these things".
