Ken McGinley, who has died aged 85, was the founder of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, set up in 1983 to gain restitution for soldiers who were required to watch in close proximity as British and American nuclear bombs were detonated on various Pacific islands.
Ken himself was present at two atomic and three nuclear bomb detonations while serving with the Royal Engineers on Christmas Island in 1958, standing in shorts and with his hands over his eyes. Aged 19, he was one of more than 20,000 members of the British armed forces who took part in a series of tests that established the UK as the third recognised possessor of thermonuclear weapons.
