NUKED BLOOD: Guinea pig troops had medical data falsified

British troops used in nuclear bomb tests were experimented upon after they returned home, the Mirror can reveal.

Blood tests taken from servicemen during Cold War weapons trials were repeated more than a decade after the programme was over.

Some of the results were hidden at the Atomic Weapons Establishment for decades, and were never entered into the men’s medical records, denying them accurate diagnosis and compensation.

And when a High Court judge had the chance to hear from a ‘guinea pig’ witness, lawyers for the Ministry of Defence falsely claimed he was dead – effectively ending the best chance of the truth coming out.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “This is clear evidence of human experimentation by the British government on its own troops, without their knowledge or consent. Thousands of men were treated like lab rats for decades, and it is high time they were treated as human beings.

“For the scientists responsible to hide medical information about veterans behind claims of national security, while neither those men nor their GPs had any idea of it, is in my view a serious crime, and must be treated as such by those in power today.”

Neither the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, nor Defence Secretary John Healey, has responded to requests to meet the veterans since they took office, or engaged with a mass legal action which could cost the taxpayer £5bn.

The cover-up was recently featured in a BBC2 documentary. Veterans say serving government staff have questions to answer about misconduct in public office, an offence which carries a maximum life sentence.

Mr Burnham warned: “Anyone in public life today will be complicit in these crimes if they do not act on this evidence. The Labour government I served in was too slow to act on Hillsborough and on infected blood. I urge my colleagues of all parties in Westminster not to repeat those mistakes of the past.

“This scandal will contaminate every Parliament until there’s one that delivers justice.”

The new evidence was found in the medical records of Terry Gledhill, who as Squadron Leader led sampling missions through the mushroom clouds of five nuclear weapons detonated at Christmas Island in the Pacific.

‘Sniff Boss’, as he was known, died in 2015 after many years of unexplained ill health, which worried him enough to urge his daughter Jane to pursue the truth “in the event of my unexplained death”.

It was a secret memo about the “gross irregularity” found in his blood tests during Operation Grapple in 1958 that blew open the Nuked Blood Scandal two years ago.

The MoD refused to release his full records, with official advice given to a minister in the last Tory government to withhold them from his family. After a long Freedom of Information battle, a judge ruled the MoD was acting unlawfully. Jane was horrified when she received the files to find they had effectively been falsified.

“We knew he had seven blood tests between the bombs, but only five of them are in his file, and none of the scientists’ discussions about them,” said Jane, from Poole, Dorset. “It seems that only the Atomic Weapons Establishment had the full picture about his health, and that had an impact on the rest of his life.”

Terry had years of repeated respiratory infections, felt constantly tired, bruised easily, and suffered attacks of pins and needles and numbness. His file shows the RAF doctors were baffled as to the cause.

Last week, Veterans Minister Al Carns was asked if the veterans were tested after they returned from the bomb trials, but could not answer. He told Parliament: “Those who were present at the UK nuclear weapon tests may have had medical testing undertaken throughout their career. I have asked MoD officials to look at records fully to understand what information the department holds… I will provide an update on this in due course.”

Terry’s medical records show he had a further blood test in 1969, 11 years after the weapons trials, and by which point he was Group Captain and commanding officer of RAF Finningley.

The doctor’s paperwork shows the purpose of the blood test, at a RAF hospital, was a “check – involved in trials on Xmas Island and had trouble with blood count then”. The results show Terry was anaemic, his white blood cell count was raised, and his red blood cells showed he was prone to infection. All three can be caused by radiation, and are similar to his results from Christmas Island. There is no indication who had requested the check, or with whom the information was shared.

“My dad never knew about all this. In the RAF you just do as you are told. He had total faith that the MoD were looking after everyone. He was asking questions, and writing letters, and getting no answers,” said Jane.

“But if there were thousands of other servicemen having blood tests at Christmas Island, then presumably if dad was being tested when he got home, so were they.”

In 1975 Terry was finally diagnosed with tuberculosis meningitis, a long-term brain infection. He suffered a stroke, contracted a second infection, and was then medically discharged from service. But his notes show that the tuberculosis bacterium was never discovered in his body, and doctors could not explain why he was ill.

His medical notes state: “This patient presented a difficult diagnostic problem. Although tubercle bacilli were not grown… tuberculous meningitis would explain the patient’s more recent symptoms, but the episodes of what sounded like sensory epilepsy stretching back over six years are presumably not related to his current illness. These episodes remain unexplained.” They also found “atypical” cells in his blood, but had no explanation for it.

The medical notes further claim “there is a family history of tuberculosis” that could explain Terry’s problems. But his only relative to have TB was a great-uncle who caught it in 1908.

“The family always believed he had TB meningitis, possibly from when he was serving in India. To find out the doctors weren’t sure was a shock,” said Jane.

“It destroyed our lives. When he started having this numbness, the doctors were trying to imply it was all in his head. After the stroke, although my mother was crippled by polio, she took the train to London every single day to take him his favourite pudding, a creme caramel, because he wasn’t eating. I watched what it did to her, it destroyed her too.

“Reading the file and seeing what he went through just leaves me with this abject helplessness. How could they do it?”

In 2007 veterans launched a mass legal action against the MoD, which argued it had been brought too late. A sworn witness statement to the High Court by a still-serving Whitehall official claims that more than a dozen potential witnesses who would back the government were dead – including Terry.

In fact, he was 81, and Jane says he would have been keen to give evidence. A source from the veterans’ legal term confirmed that, had he been a witness, it was “highly likely” they would have asked to see Terry’s personnel file and any radiological monitoring he was given.

Had they done so, they would almost certainly have found the blood tests, and the orders for thousands of men to be subjected to them, 13 years earlier.

Terry lived until 2015 – and was in receipt of a war pension until the end of his life. He was also awarded the Air Force Cross by the Queen for his bravery at the weapons tests.

A MoD spokesman said there was “no evidence for these claims”. He added: “Ministers are looking hard at this 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.”