Photo © Chris Hill
Neil Rose was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, in 1938. He grew up in Tidsworth, Hampshire, and in Seascale, Cumbria. At 15 Rose joined the Army as boy entrant and completed an apprenticeship in Army Engineering, joining the Royal Engineers following his training. He served as military tradesman for a year and was then posted to the Maralinga nuclear testing ground in Australia in 1957. At Maralinga, Rose worked on vehicles, plant and machinery. Following the nuclear tests, he served as a mechanic on the Army’s International Rally Team and spent time serving in Cyprus and Germany. He retired from the Army in 1979. He currently lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire with his wife Valerie. They have four children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Interview extracts
Audio recordings of Neil Rose
Description
This painting of Neil Rose’s mother, created by a German Prisoner of War who stayed with their family at Woodhampton, now hangs on the wall of his living room. Rose tells the story behind the painting. On his father’s side, Rose’s family has a proud heritage of military service. Rose carried on this tradition, training as a mechanic and serving in Maralinga during Operation Antler, where he assessed target response equipment that had been exposed to the blast of a nuclear detonation.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. Neil Rose was recorded for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Christopher R Hill. This project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
Transcript
The photograph there, or the painting there, of my mother, now, I told you we had Germans come to stay with us at Woodhampton, one of them was an artist and he did that picture for my mother’s Christmas present. And it’s the gospel truth, that was painted on plywood, and plywood, on the back of it, it’s got all stains of oil and stuff, it’s really rough, but he had to find it on the farm, something to paint on, sanded it and whatever he did, and then he painted that.
That’s remarkable quality, given that’s on plywood.
He signed it, and it’s my mother to a tee and something I’m immensely proud of.
[ends at 0:00:51]
