The plight of the nuclear testing veterans is the longest running scandal in British history. Now, for the first time, some of the few remaining men will tell their stories in a TV documentary which examines the full horror of what they suffered.
The BBC film, which also features descendants of the veterans, tells the definitive story of the weapons-testing programme launched in the 1950s, and covers the fallout, missing medical records, the government cover-up and the long campaign to try and get to the truth. Most of all, it shows the shattering human cost of Britain’s quest to become a global nuclear power.
John Morris was just 18 when he was sent to Australia’s Christmas Island in 1956 as part of his national service. He says the men were not told why they were going, but after witnessing four detonations as part of Operation Grapple, he now describes himself and his comrades as “human guinea pigs”.
In 1962 John, now 86, became a father for the first time but soon after tragedy struck and speaking in the film more than 60 years after the death of his son Steven, John is overcome with emotion. He tells how the baby died suddenly in his cot aged just four months, having shown no previous signs of ill health. “The undertaker came with his coffin, a little white box,” he says, choking back tears. “It was the hardest day of my life. I was suffering, my wife was in bits.”
Steven’s death certificate states he had pneumonia but John says this is simply untrue. “If that little baby had had pneumonia we would have known. He was perfectly healthy when we put him to bed. “The coroner’s report showed that his lungs possibly hadn’t formed properly. The problem is, I cannot prove it. I blame the MoD and the experiments they did on us for Steven’s death. And I always will.”
Diagnosed himself with pernicious anaemia at the age of 26, John has been refused a war pension despite the condition having clear links to radiation exposure. He remembers five blood tests, but all are missing from his medical records.
By 1946 military scientists knew that no amount of exposure to radiation was safe, meaning the risks for men being taken to witness explosions were understood. None of the remaining veterans in the film have not suffered from cancer – some multiple times – and many of their children and grandchildren have also had a catalogue of illnesses and deformities including many forms of cancer, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, holes in the heart, kidney problems and lung defects. Overall, the group has experienced five times the usual rate of infant mortality and three times the national rate of miscarriage. But none of this has been officially recognised.
The veterans are incensed by a refusal by successive governments to act while France, Russia and America have compensated their own veterans and Australia, Fiji and New Zealand have done the same for the troops used in the British tests.
The Mirror has reported on the story since the 80s and particularly over the past 20 years when reporter Susie Boniface – who features in the film – took up the cause.
In 2019, Labour pledged £75million for compensation with then shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry saying it was the government’s duty “to correct the injustices of the past.” Now Keir Starmer has the opportunity to follow through on the promise.
At a screening of the BBC film last week, John called on the Prime Minister to follow through with his previous promise of meeting with them. “That film is the recognition that we’ve been put on from a great height,” he declared. “MoD, you are negligent. You hung us out, you don’t give a damn. Aftercare? Where was it – nowhere. Once you leave the army, you’re gone. We want a public apology. It’s the least they can do,” John said. “Come on MoD – admit liability and give us the recognition that we deserve. Let us have an inquiry that’s not going to take five years – we’ll be dead. Let’s have one that takes 12 months.”
For 40 years, the Mirror has told readers how Britain treats its Cold War heroes. And in this powerful BBC documentary we have helped show what happened to troops used in appalling nuclear tests. The argument is no longer that these men were wounded by radiation. Now, the allegation is that entire families were injured.
As the Mirror has reported, servicemen had blood tests taken and the results hidden. It reveals for the first time how the British state lied to the High Court, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights by claiming such testing was never done. Nineteen governments have betrayed these families.
Keir Starmer is the first Prime Minister to know that crimes are being committed on his watch. He has the chance to end this scandal, if he will meet these veterans. That anyone in this country still remembers these men is down to the longest campaign in newspaper history. We will continue it until a PM does the right thing.
Archie’s story
Sailor Archie Hart, 87, speaks for the first time on TV about his experience on HMS Diana, the MoD’s designated “guinea pig ship” that was ordered to sail through the fallout of two atomic clouds for eight hours at a time. “They would have us believe that this nuclear fallout was just a gentle rain from heaven,” he says. “It wasn’t. It was toxic and it was deadly. It was ionising radiation.
“Everybody on that ship was used. You weren’t given a choice in this…” Archie speaks about the physical toll on his health, with around 150 lymphomas on his body. In the 1960s, he had a big chunk of his bowel removed to fight an aggressive cancer.
Brian’s story
RAF cook Brian Unthank, 86, witnessed two hydrogen bombs with a combined yield equivalent to 320 Hiroshima bombs, before going home to a lifetime of health issues. Weeks after his return, he had lost all his teeth. He then began suffering gut problems and his wife suffered 13 late term miscarriages.
Of their surviving children one was born with two holes in his heart, and a daughter with two wombs. Brian has had 93 skin cancers removed but they are counted, in official government studies, as just one case of cancer. Brian’s official medical records are missing 20 years of annual checks covering the period of his family’s ill health.
Steve’s story
Steve Purse’s dad David took part in radioactive experiments known as “the Minor Trials” in Maralinga in 1963. Steve, 51, was born with several disabilities including a unique form of short stature. He always said he would not have children to avoid passing on the genetic damage he believes he inherited as a result of his father’s service. However, he now has a three-year-old son whose teeth are crumbling.
“The hope is that’s all he’ll get,” Steve says. “That’s the nature of what we deal with, with these invisible bullets that keep being fired.”
Steve’s mother has unlawfully been denied access to David’s blood and urine tests.
John’s story
John Folkes was 19 when ordered to fly through the mushroom clouds of four atomic bombs. He was tested to see if radiation entered his body but has never been told the results. Left with PTSD and permanent trembling, John’s medical file has been stripped
of all records from this period.
“We saw this inferno, crimson, black smoke billowing up towards us. I didn’t think we were gonna make it. How we got so close and not vaporised I just don’t know,” he says. Now aged 89, John believes he was saved when his aircraft flipped over. “We were more or less upside down but climbing, fortunately, away from the bomb. The shock wave saved our lives,” he adds.
– Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story, BBC2, Wednesday 20 November
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