Government salutes Strathspey nuclear test victim after 66 years

“11 September 1958. RAF. Christmas Island”.

This photograph was found in the wallet of Aviemore man Geordie Paterson when he died of liver cancer in 2006.

He had shared it with nobody in all of those 48 years spent wondering if, like other conscripts with him in the blast, he might die of cancer.

“We found the picture in his wallet,” his widow Babs told the Strathy earlier this week.

“It said more about the whole damn thing than he ever did.”

Sgt Paterson was one of the guinea pigs made to lie face down in the sand with eyes shut tight behind his hands as Britain scrambled to keep up in the nuclear race.

His wife said: “He just didn’t talk about it. Only once that I remember, he told me that even with his eyes clamped shut in his hands he could for one terrifying moment see every bone in his fingers…”

The postman arrived earlier this month with a package from the government.

It contained a medal for her husband’s contribution to world peace – i.e. keeping his mouth shut for 48 years along with so many others.

As she looked at it at her home in High Burnside, Mrs Paterson could only shake her head.

“I’m not sure how Geordie would have received it,” she confessed.

“I know it’s nothing like as important as the other medal, the one he did receive while he was alive.

“That was the British Empire Medal with oakleaf cluster for an incredible piece of bravery recovering a colleague from No Man’s Land when he served in Aden.

“That was for an act of his own choosing, it was not simply a question of being lined up with other national servicemen on some Pacific Island as unwitting nuclear guinea pigs.

“We cherish the BEM. I’m not sure what to do with this one…”

For decades the government chose to stay pretty silent about the whole H-bomb test programme and even today a national campaign rages on behalf of the generations of servicemen and women who went unprotected, uninformed, many of them to painful deaths as a result of the radiation they received.

That drama is still unfolding.

An MOD spokesperson said: “We recognise the huge contribution that Nuclear Test Veterans have made to national security.

“The government is committed to working with veterans and listening to their concerns.

“We have already amended the criteria for the commemorative Nuclear Test Medal to ensure those who took part in US atmospheric testing are also recognised.

“Ministers are looking hard at the issue - including the question of records.

“They will continue to engage with the individuals and families affected and as part of this engagement, the Minister of Veterans and People Alistair Carns has already met with parliamentarians and a Nuclear Test Veteran campaign group to discuss their concerns further.”

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