A woman shipped to nuclear testing grounds as a baby by the Ministry of Defence fears she developed a deadly brain condition as a result of radiation.
As the last survivor of her family, Liz Burridge, 66, is asking for the nuclear veterans medal to be sped up so she can collect it on behalf of her dad before it is too late.
She was a newborn when dad Peter, an army engineer, was ordered to Christmas Island in the South Pacific to take part in a series of weapons tests at the height of the Cold War.
The first ones didn’t work and, with troops ordered to stay longer in a rush to build a full H-bomb, in 1957 the MoD offered cheap passage on the troop ship Dunera to dozens of wives and children as a morale boost.
“I was just 13 months old and my mother wanted me to see my dad, and for her to see her husband,” said Liz.
“It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back now we were just propaganda for the MoD. They took our pictures and we were in the Daily Mirror, on this lovely holiday to the tropics. We went ashore and played on the beach.”
Letters written by her mother Joan show that the toddler had inexplicable and dramatic weight loss on the return trip. Shortly afterwards, Joan fell pregnant. But she gave birth to a severely-deformed boy, who didn’t survive.
Liz said: “I only heard her speak about it once, but she was extremely upset. It wasn’t something you discussed in those days. But they never tried again, and years later my dad told me ‘you should have had a brother’.”
The Mirror first reported on the trip in February 1958, when Dunera docked in Hawaii on the way home, along with 35 children, 31 mothers, and servicemen from 25th Field Regiment, Royal Engineers. Toddler Liz is seen in the main picture, with her parents in the bottom right.
The report says it was the brainchild of the unit's commanding officer Colonel Henry Gatford, and had Whitehall approval.
It says: "His 400 men had spent a lonely year on desolate Christmas Island. So before the Dunera left Britain to fetch them home, the colonel suggested that the soldiers' families be allowed to sail with the ship from Southampton, go out to meet their menfolk, and share the trip back.
"The War Office agred, and for £30 per adult and £15 a child the families are now having a 10-week tropical cruise that would cost anyone else hundreds of pounds."
In the years since, several Dunera families have come forward to report sickness and cancers, but they are not included in official research into the health impact of the tests.
Joan died from a brain aneurysm aged just 54, and Peter died from prostate cancer in 2016. Liz herself has been unable to have children, and has now been diagnosed with an aneurysm herself.
The latest government study found servicemen at the Pacific tests had a 16% great risk of dying from cerebrovascular disease. No study has ever been done into the health of their children.
“The doctors want to operate but it’s 50-50 if it will end in me being left with disabilities,” said Liz.
“My father was always annoyed at the lack of recognition for the veterans, and I am the last person who can collect the medal on his behalf. I’m putting off the surgery, but at the back of my mind I’m worrying whether the medal will come in time.”
Applications for the medal are expected to open before April, but the design and eligibility criteria are yet to be agreed by the MoD medal office, which has few staff. Campaigners have been told the design is now underway at the Royal Mint but it could be late summer before it is struck, and the King has indicated he wants to hold an investiture-style ceremony to award it.
Liz said: “They’ve had 70 years, and we’ve waited long enough. My father always said the bombs were a deterrent, to make people stop and think. Well, they need to think about who’ll be left to collect this medal if they don’t hurry up.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised an in-depth meeting with campaigners to discuss war pensions and other issues last November, when he announced the medal. But Downing Street has blanked requests to set a date.
