They wanted to serve our country – but instead became nuclear ‘guinea pigs’

The government carried out a series of horrifying human experiments on thousands of its own servicemen, write Jason McCue and Oliver Troen. But the full extent of what happened has only now become apparent

More than 22,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen were sent to the South Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s as guinea pigs to watch and experience the aftermath of nuclear weapons testing (AFP/Getty)

There are few people alive today who have witnessed a nuclear explosion. Those who have report seeing the bones in their body as if in an X-ray; a blinding light so bright it was impossible to look at without scorching your eyes; a blast wave so strong that it knocked you off your feet, wiping away all that stood in front of it.

But many do not realise these are not the testimonies of the victims of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but of more than 22,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen, sent to the South Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s as “guinea pigs” to watch and experience the aftermath of nuclear weapons testing.

Many have since died. A few live on. We were privileged to first meet the brave veterans and their families at their annual reunion in 2023. It was warming to witness their patriotism after all the years and after all they have gone through – all they wanted was justice for their families and their band of brothers.

It was chilling to witness the effects of their radiation exposure during the tests on themselves and their families. One did not need to be a doctor to clearly appreciate the cause. It is sad that the Ministry of Defence cannot see what is as plain as a pikestaff to everyone else, and that they need lawyers to make it clear to them and enforce accountability and responsibility on them.

Veterans of Britain’s Cold War radiation experiments Terry Quinlan (left) and Brian Unthank (right) hand a petition in at Downing Street (PA Wire)

The servicemen – many as young as 18 – were ordered by their superiors, who sat in smoking rooms in Pall Mall, to sit topless on ship decks to watch the blasts, fly through the mushroom clouds, handle highly radioactive debris, and crawl through fallout in what can only be called a series of horrifying human experiments.

They did their duty, but at huge cost to many of them. Some developed cancer and died, or saw their children born with serious defects. Others were left sterile by the experience.

Fancifully, the UK government does not even recognise that the veterans were exposed to high levels of radiation. This Orwellian nightmare continues daily for the veterans, as they experience the harmful effects of radiation exposure while being told by the government that their suffering is unrelated.

Crucially, a key problem for the veterans has always been that they do not have access to comprehensive scientific and medical records from the time, which could prove exposure to radiation as the cause of their later suffering.

This meant that when veterans took their case to the Supreme Court in 2012, they lost – with the MoD spending over £6m in taxpayer-funded legal fees to defeat them.

Undeterred, they fight on. Investigations by The Mirror in recent years have uncovered new evidence that may hold the key to justice for these heroes. It is now clear that extensive medical testing took place on the veterans during their deployment, including blood and urine tests.

We have seen government orders that such testing should take place. The veterans remember having tests, but there is now incontrovertible documentary evidence to support their testimony. Unless there was mass insubordination in the South Pacific for over a decade, it strongly suggests they did take place.

Yet the government refuses to hand over the results of these tests, or to provide concrete information on what happened to them. That is why today we are launching a renewed legal campaign on behalf of many veterans, crowdfunded by the community.

Their case is strong, fair and simple. The MoD are being presented with a choice. The MoD’s legal options are either to provide the missing records so they can be assessed for personal injury claims, or to compensate for negligence and recklessness if medical tests have been withheld with inordinate delay, lost, destroyed, or never taken at all.

To avoid the protracted expense of a long court battle, the veterans have generously proposed a quicker, more efficient, and cheaper alternative: the creation of a special tribunal for this matter with statutory powers to investigate, adjudicate, make reparations and build a legacy that the veterans – and the country – can be proud of.

For many of the veterans, time is running out. For others, it has run out. The scandal of denying some of our bravest heroes the full picture of what happened to them must end now. Without the government taking responsibility, we cannot forge a path to reconciliation. It is time we stopped treating our heroes as guinea pigs and started treating them like lions.

Dr Jason McCue and Oli Troen are solicitors for the veterans at McCue Jury & Partners