Nuclear test veterans reflect on what they understand ‘recognition’ to mean in relation to their participation in the nuclear test programme.
Photo by National Defense Agency. Public domain, via the US National Records and Archives Administration.
What does recognition mean to a British nuclear test veteran? Decades after their military or civil service, many have struggled with ill-health they believe is a direct result of that service. A 40-year campaign for justice, which was started by the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA), remains unresolved. Of the 22,000 Commonwealth service personnel who were present at the British nuclear tests, only a few thousand are still living today. This article argues for the importance of recognising the contributions of, and risks taken by, the nuclear test veteran community through broader public understanding of their history.
The clips that follow are taken from interviews recorded for 'An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’. The project was funded by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs and all interviews are archived at the British Library. The veterans who were interviewed are now in their 80s and 90s and, as we’ll see, have mixed opinions on the importance of recognising military service through the award of the Nuclear Test Medal by the UK Government. The medal was awarded in 2023, 70 years after Britain’s first atomic test. What recognition would be meaningful for nuclear test veterans who are no longer alive? My late father, Mike Doyle, was present at Operation Grapple X in 1957. We cannot arrive at recognition for nuclear test veterans without talking about intergenerational injustice and moral injury.
For many, a medal isn’t a symbol, it is a story about a moment in time and about the person who is awarded the medal. Each medal may be the same, but every person awarded that medal has a different story. British nuclear test veterans were finally allowed to apply for a medal in 2022. This came as a result of a targeted campaign by LABRATS (Legacy of the Atomic Bomb, Recognition for Atomic Test Survivors), which is a nuclear test veteran support group.
John Morris joined the Army through National Service. He believes in the power of a medal as recognition for what he did for his country. For Morris a medal marks a point in history, which will help people to look back and learn from the past.
While discussing remembrance, John Morris describes wanting the same recognition for nuclear test veterans that war veterans receive. Morris was significantly impacted by his experiences on Christmas Island. Both he and his family have suffered numerous health complications that he attributes to his service during Operation Grapple. He has been an active campaigner for the nuclear test veteran community and appeared in the BBC documentary Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal.
British nuclear test veterans are not the only cohort of ex-servicemen who have had to wait decades for medallic recognition. Servicemen who participated in the Arctic Convoys during the Second World War were not permitted to apply for their medal, the Arctic Star, until 2012. The ‘Bevin Boys’, young men conscripted to work in the coal mines between 1943 and 1948, also had to wait before being recognised with an official badge.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. John Morris was interviewed for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Jonathan Hogg. The project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
I felt very, very strongly that I deserved recognition for what I’d done for this country, similar to what the soldiers in the First and Second World War had done. They were recognised for their valour and what they’d done for this country. I believe that the atomic veterans deserve the same recognition. And finally, we won. Finally. But it took a lot of time, a lot of money – it’s all self-funded. Not that it bothered me, because I have principles, and that principle was very, very strong in me for people that are no longer here to fight for themselves, or are not capable of fighting for themselves. And that’s why I think this sort of history needs to be out there. And people, in time to come, as they often do, to look back in that history and to learn from it.
[ends at 0:01:17]
The Arctic Star. Photo: UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2016. Photo: UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2016.
Many personnel from associated services received medals. Squadron leader Pete Peters received an Air Force Cross from the Royal Air Force (RAF). In his interview he recalls dissent amongst military personnel over the lack of recognition for the nuclear test veterans, whose peers believed they had shared the same risks. Such examples of different treatment have only served to reinforce the nuclear test veterans’ belief that they have been deliberately forgotten by successive governments due to the secretive nature of their military service.
Pete Peters took part in the Castle series of American nuclear tests on the Marshall Islands on behalf of the RAF. He talks about the historic lack of recognition for nuclear test veterans in the context of awards received by pilots and navigators. He mentions losing two crews on the way out – this is a reference to the two British Canberra aircraft that were lost over the Pacific on the way to the Marshall Islands.
The image illustrating this clip is an article by Susie Boniface for the Sunday Mirror. Susie’s support and groundbreaking investigative journalism has been invaluable to the test veteran community.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. Pete Peters was recorded for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2023. 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.
As it was, you know we lost two crews on the way out, they are nothing but remembered. Of the three crews, that’s Flying Officer Warren, Flying Officer Crompton [sp?] and me, Flying Officer Peters, the pilots concerned all got Air Force Crosses, afterwards, about a year or so after, after we were back. The navigators got Queen’s Commendations, but not- they wear a medal for that. But there was a lot of dissention that the navs should also have got AFCs, because they shared the same risks with us, all of them. If anything had gone wrong nastily it would have happened to them just as much as it might have happened to us. So there was a lot of dissension about that afterwards, but that is the service system, and being inured to it, we accepted it.
[ends at 0:00:56]
Sunday Mirror article by Susie Boniface about Pete Peters, 28 July 2024. Photo © Reach plc. Photo © Reach plc
The medal campaign was controversial for some, and there are many different opinions about it. Veterans cited personal and political reasons why they did not feel a medal was appropriate recognition. Some questioned what use a medal might be to those in need of practical and financial support. There was also the fact that not all of those taking part in the nuclear tests were service personnel: scientists, technicians and other civil servants also contributed.
Whilst most nuclear test veterans were thrilled to finally receive medallic recognition, some received it as an additional moral injury to compound their suffering. For others, the struggles of the intervening years have dramatically changed their view on whether a medal is appropriate recognition for their lived experience. David Taunt, who ran the Christmas Island Broadcast Service during Operation Dominic, describes the deep personal impact of having to fight for such recognition.
David Taunt was sent to Christmas Island to participate in the joint US-UK nuclear testing operation Operation Dominic in 1962. During his time on the island he ran the Christmas Island Broadcasting Service. In this clip, Taunt talks about the way the Nuclear Test Medal was awarded and describes how its arrival in the post has caused anger amongst veterans. In later life he began to face health issues and this led to his involvement with the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA). Due to Taunt’s service for a joint US-UK nuclear testing operation, he has been able to claim monetary compensation from the USA through the RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) scheme.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. David Taunt was interviewed for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Christopher R Hill. The project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
My thoughts on it, my personal – and they are my very personal thoughts – some would agree and some would totally disagree. The fight that we’re having to put up to get recognition, despite – what sort of recognition is irrelevant – but to have to basically crawl on bended knee and beg for a medal, 65 years down the line after the issues, it really… Had they given us a medal and thought, referred to us as heroes, as we are [laughs], of course, you know, within a couple of years or so of all this happening to us, I could have accepted it, I would have been very, very proud, but the fact that we’ve had to beg on bended knees, you know, it, it loses its value to me. And I think one of the reasons for me standing down as vice chair, over and above the medical issues, which were the main reason, was because of those thoughts. And being so involved with the guys that were suffering, as I am, in some cases worse than me, for the British test, and for the American test. It has, I’ve been talking quite a lot about this to my wife and to my doctor, I’m suffering mentally, I think, over all this because I know too much. And the ideas, as I say, of having to wait and have to, you know, beg for a medal. It’s nice to be awarded a medal, but to have to go and beg for it, it loses its value to me.
[ends at 0:01:59]
The Nuclear Test Medal. Photo: Open Government Licence v3.0. Photo: Open Government Licence v3.0.
Despite differing opinion on whether a medal fulfils the nuclear test veterans’ need for recognition, all veterans and their families agree on the need for the truth. Indeed, this is the very reason why the late Ken McGinley and other veterans like my father showed years of commitment to the BNTVA. Britain is the last nuclear nation left to acknowledge potential harm caused to service personnel by its weapons testing programme.
Successive years of campaigning and court battles (with some even reaching the European Court of Human Rights), have left their mark on many veterans with prevailing suspicions of a ‘cover up’. As the child of one of the early campaigners, I watched my father’s faith in his country, in society, in government and in justice erode as the years of blanket denial mounted. John Simes who, just like my father, was attached to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment as part of Operation Grapple, expresses his desire to know the truth in the next clip.
John Simes was posted to Christmas Island as part of Operation Grapple in 1958 and was initially in the Royal Engineers. He then became attached to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) and visited Ground Zero following the Grapple Z2 detonation. For Simes, as this clip shows, receiving the Nuclear Test Medal is not as important as finding out more information about the levels of radiation he and his fellow servicemen were exposed to. Simes has been a member of both the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA) and LABRATS (Legacy of the Atomic Bomb, Recognition for Atomic Test Survivors).
The photograph illustrating this clip shows Ken McGinley, founder of the BNTVA, surrounded by documents and files in his fight for justice on behalf of British nuclear test veterans.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. John Simes was recorded for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Fiona Bowler. The project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
I probably wouldn’t have gone for a medal in the first place, but it seemed to be, LABRATS seemed to be obsessed with it. [laughs]
So how did you feel when it arrived?
Well, I just put it over there, it’ll still be in there now. What I would like to know is the truth. The medal doesn’t tell us the truth. The truth has been covered up, in my opinion, and that’s the bit I would love to know. You’ve only got to go, read all this tribunal stuff in it, there’s so many variations on the evidence being given that it’s quite disturbing really. So there we are.
So in terms of recognition, from the government, you want to know the truth
Well, it would be nice to know the truth. I mean it’s a fact that all these politicians that we’ve got, I mean from way back, they’re all convinced, they stand up and say all the precautions were taken. Well no, they were not taken. I don’t know, I can’t talk about Australia, I don’t know, but I can talk about Christmas Island. Because none of these people that say all these precautions were taken were there. And if you’re involved as I was, going down all over the island, we know.
[ends at 0:01:26]
Ken McGinley. Photo © Alan Rimmer, used with permission. Photo © Alan Rimmer, used with permission.
‘Truth’ for nuclear test veterans means transparency: a government inquiry and access to documents and medical records that will either prove or disprove an increasingly held conviction that they were used as ‘guinea pigs’ during the tests. Ken McGinley, who was also interviewed for this project, told The Sunday Post in November 2022, ‘… this is just the start of the process. We want things like an apology, compensation and a full public inquiry into the treatment of nuclear test veterans. The issuing of a medal is an easy option but it’s hopefully the beginning of getting justice.’
Many of the veterans focus on truth as a form of recognition not only for themselves but also for future generations. Only through gaining the truth can intergenerational injustice and moral injury start to be resolved. Gordon Coggon, who joined the RAF through National Service, expresses how he is not interested in money and that his priority is to help other ‘bomb victims’.
Gordon Coggon was blinded for two weeks by the second bomb test that he witnessed. In this clip, he argues for the importance of educating young people about the legacies of nuclear weapons testing. He mentions LABRATS (Legacy of the Atomic Bomb, Recognition for Atomic Test Survivors), a nuclear test veteran support group.
This is a short extract from an in-depth interview. Gordon Coggon was recorded for the Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans project in 2024. The interviewer was Jonathan Hogg. The project was run in partnership with National Life Stories and the full interview can be accessed at the British Library.
I’d like to see in history in black and white and for the MoD to admit what they did, or to be forced to tell the true story behind what they did. You know, for it all to come out like you’re doing now, all to come out in the open and show people that we was used as guinea pigs, and we were. That’s what I want. I’m not interested in the bloody money, they can keep it as far as I’m concerned, I’m more interested in the kids’ future health. That’s why I’ve done things like the book, I’ve donated it to LABRATS so they can help other bomb victims, specially children, now. I mean I’m not well off, but I’m not downcast either, I’m quite happy, financial situation, it’s a bit hard sometimes, but apart from that, I’m okay.
[ends at 0:01:10]
The Very Reverend Nicholas Frayling, the BNTVA's chaplain, after conducting a service on National Atomic Veterans Day. Photo © Steve Bexon, used with permission. Photo © Steve Bexon, used with permission.
Seventy years after the first atomic test at Operation Hurricane, nuclear test veteran testimony has shown us that the meaning of ‘recognition’ is complex and varied among servicemen. Many things impact this. Individual attitudes toward military service, political and personal opinions, ill health, life experiences since the nuclear tests, and the public campaign for justice and recognition has created a complicated landscape of opinion and feeling. In my experience as a nuclear test descendant one thing that our test veterans unanimously agree on, is that their story must be remembered for generations to come.
Elin Doyle grew up in South Lincolnshire. Her father, Mike Doyle, worked as a technician in the bomb detonation team at the AWRE (Atomic Weapons Research Establishment) in Aldermaston. This is also where Mike met Elin’s mother, Barbara, who was attached to the team responsible for running tests to calculate the critical mass of Uranium. Elin is the youngest of Mike and Barbara’s three children and grew up witnessing the toll that the tests took on her father and family. Her childhood memories are filled with Mike’s extensive involvement in the early campaign for justice as one of the founding members of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association. Elin is an actor and writer. Her play, ‘GUINEA PIGS’, a semi-autobiographical comedy drama, was first performed as R&D at The Space Arts Theatre in London in 2022.
Header image: Yukon, a detonation during Operation Dominic. Photo by National Defense Agency. Public domain, via the US National Records and Archives Administration.
