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CAMPAIGN SPRING 2022
Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you following the recent meeting to emphasise a number of points that emphatically support the award of a medal to British Nuclear Test Veterans.
Following the McMahon Act, the British government decided to develop the atomic bomb, with foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin saying, “We’ve got to have it and it’s got to have a bloody Union Jack on it.” At the commissioning of live nuclear fission tests, our servicemen were drafted into a programme in which they stood just miles from apocalyptic explosions, flew through nuclear winds, walked through radioactive sand and drank contaminated water. A lack of protective gear shook the very being of the 21,357 British nuclear test participants who participated in such deeply life-altering events.
The cloud flyers and the crew of the HMS Diana were volunteered to take part in extremely dangerous conditions, full of risk and rigour. One surviving cloud flyer from Operation Buffalo developed a significant hand tremor during his first cloud flying sortie due to being so terrified as he flew through the radiation cloud in a Varsity, but he did his duty. Aged 87, he still has the same tremor and mental scars of his experiences at the Maralinga tests. Nuclear test veterans’ duty drew from them a sacrifice it is our duty to recognise now.
Although the nuclear testing was non-combat in nature, the psychological effects can be seen within the MOD studies, with a high level of suicide/death by acts of violence amongst nuclear test veterans compared to the control group.
In 2013, the AMSC established that the British nuclear test veterans’ participation at the atmospheric tests had satisfied the element of risk. In response to the BNTVA’s evidence-based medal application to the AMSC dated June 2021, Dr Charles Winstanley stated that the nuclear test veterans had indeed witnessed “novel and challenging surroundings” at the tests and radiation clean ups, yet the application was subsequently turned down by the Committee.
These brave servicemen enabled the Commonwealth to develop the nuclear deterrent for the safety of all to this day. It’s time to step up for those who stepped forward when their country needed them. In the twilight of their storied lives it should be our privilege to present the nuclear veterans with an emblem of our gratitude for what was endured in the name of Queen and Country. Just as the Governments of American, New Zealand and Australia have done.
I hope that, as you committed to do so in the House of Commons, “take personal charge” of this matter and recommend to Her Majesty a service medal for Nuclear Test Veterans.
Kind regards,
Ed McGrath
Chairman of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association.
15.06.2022