British Cold War nuclear test veterans claim MOD is hiding some of their medical records

It’s been more than six decades since John Morris served on Christmas Island in the South Pacific where the British government tested nuclear weapons.

The 86-year-old has seen other members of his unit die since then, due to various conditions, including blood disorders and cancers. Some lost children or had children born with defects.

He has also had cancer and was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia in his twenties. After Christmas Island, Mr Morris went on to have children, but his son died when he was only four months old, it’s thought his lungs didn’t develop properly.

“The flashbacks I get sometimes are horrific of picking my child up out of his cot. They are unbelievably live in my head.”

Mr Morris has always felt guilty, he believes his son’s death was a result of a genetic defect caused by nuclear radiation that he was exposed to.

“I was there for [the testing of] four atomic bombs. The nearest was 20 miles away. And I had a pair of shorts, a shirt on and sunglasses. It was like sitting in the centre of the sun.”

Mr Morris has spent decades campaigning for recognition of the sacrifices that he, and other men, made for Britain’s efforts to secure nuclear weapons.

Medical records ‘missing in certain items’

More than 20,000 British servicemen took part in hundreds of Cold War weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific. None of them have ever received compensation for the illnesses they believe were caused by radiation.

Now he wants to expose the truth about the physical toll he believes their service has taken.

“I have been requesting for many, many years my medical records and I have received them, but they appear to be changed or they appear to be somewhat missing in certain items,” said Mr Morris.

“I know for a fact that I had urine and blood samples taken and they were not recorded. But the MOD [Ministry of Defence] suggests they were never taken. Now I can almost give them the dates that my blood was taken because I was in an isolation hospital.”

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Mr Morris and other veterans are suing the government in order to provide their complete medical files. Oli Troen, one of the lawyers working with them, says when veterans have requested medical information it has often come back as missing or incomplete.

“We’ve uncovered over 200 archive documents which clearly show that the veterans were required to be tested for both blood and urine samples, both before they went out to the South Pacific to engage in the nuclear testing, whilst they were there and when they came back… if those tests were done where are they now?” said Mr Troen.

“It’s not simply enough for the MOD to say ‘sorry we don’t have these records’. We need to know why they don’t have them, where they are and who lost them.”

‘What are they hiding?‘

Steve Purse’s father David ran an airfield in Maralinga, Australia where nuclear weapons tests were carried out. Mr Purse, 49, was born with a series of disabilities and uses a wheelchair because he has stunted limbs. He believes his father’s exposure to radiation caused his conditions.

“I had an email just this week from the RAF [Royal Air Force] saying yes the MOD search has found the information you require but no you can’t have it, and they’re quoting some law about confidentiality… What are they hiding?

“It’s as if they know that what dad was exposed to probably caused my condition and they just don’t want me to have it,” he said.

“I always said that I would never have children. I didn’t want to pass this on. And then I got married and we had a little boy. He’s lovely. But he has a condition in his teeth and a lot of descendants [of nuclear veterans] report teeth problems.

“So my fear is that yes I’ve passed something onto him. Did I play genetic Russian roulette with his life?”

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: “We are grateful to all service personnel who participated in the British nuclear testing programme and contributed to keeping our nation secure and are pleased that they will now be receiving a medal in recognition of this.

“It remains the case that no information is withheld from veterans and any medical records taken either before, during or after participation in the UK nuclear weapon tests are held in individual military medical records in the government’s archives, which can be accessed on request.”