Campaigning widow Shirley Denson’s life came to a peaceful end – just hours after the Ministry of Defence delivered a cruel deathbed snub in her long fight for justice.
In her last days as she struggled with the pain of terminal lung and bone cancer, top brass denied a medal to her late husband Eric.
The RAF ace had been ordered to fly through the mushroom cloud of Britain’s biggest nuclear weapon in 1958 and papers proved he was intentionally exposed to a massive dose of radiation in a Cold War experiment.
A war pension tribunal ruled his service caused him to take his own life 18 years later, and last year Shirley, 87, applied for an Elizabeth Cross, which is awarded to any armed forces killed as a result of their service.
It was introduced in 2012 following a Mirror campaign.
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But Rear Admiral Jim Macleod refused it on the basis of “insufficient evidence”. He said the pension was awarded on the standard of proof required for a civil claim for damages, while medals required a criminal standard.
No such rule was included in the eligibility criteria when the medal was first ordered by the Queen in 2009, but the decision was upheld last month, just before Shirley died, by Lt Gen James Swift, who is in charge of armed forces morale. A legal challenge is now being considered.
Shirley was not told the news before she died in order to protect her, and she passed away peacefully surrounded by her large family at home in Morden, south London.
Her granddaughter Samantha Karioli said: “Someone who probably has medals right across his chest, and never had to endure the sort of danger my grandad was sent into, was petty and cruel enough to deny her that last little bit of justice. They treated her, and all nuclear veterans and widows, with terrible cruelty for 30 years. She never gave up fighting for recognition and nor will we.”
Comic Al Murray, who campaigned alongside Shirley in Parliament, hit out at the snub, adding: “It is bitterly disappointing but grimly consistent. It would have cost the MoD nothing but a scrap of human decency.
"All serving members of the armed forces should look at how the MoD treats its nuclear veterans - who gave us our most powerful weapon, and longest period of peace - and ask themselves how they might be treated when they become an inconvenient reminder of times past.”
Sqn Ldr Denson was part of Operation Grapple Y, a 3-megaton thermonuclear blast at Christmas Island in the South Pacific.
After piloting a "sniff plane" through the cloud on a sampling mission, Eric vomited for two days. Following a second flight without his plane being decontaminated, which was recorded in his log book but the MoD still denies ever happened, he was sent home when it was realised he had exceeded radiation dose safety limits.
Shirley said Eric had a massive rash across his torso and returned home a changed man. He suffered crippling headaches and she twice saved him from suicide. He later took his own life at the third attempt, leaving a note saying he couldn't take the pain any more.
The new widow moved into housing provided by a military charity and raised their four daughters alone. She also helped to raise her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and began campaigning for recognition of nuclear veteran families.
Ken McGinley, who founded the British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association in 1985, said: "Shirley made history. I remember Margaret Thatcher said the only people at risk from the tests were the air crew, and I told Shirley to use her husband's status as an officer to see if they had a record of his dose. She uncovered the Blue Book, which holds dose records of all RAF air crew, and forced the MoD to open it.
"She used that to prove Eric's dose and won a war pension on that basis. To my knowledge, she is the only widow to win a war pension on the grounds their husband was killed by the nuclear tests. Veterans and their families today still have that chance, because Shirley forged the path for them."
* Read the full story of Britain's nuclear weapons tests at DAMNED
Using her rights as a widow to access her husband's records, Shirley also uncovered documents proving he received a dose equivalent to 165 years' worth of background radiation directly to his brain. A dose just under half that was delivered to his testicles.
Shirley was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother. A fifth of Eric’s descendants now have a congenital birth defect, including missing teeth, spinal deformity and organ malformation.
The Mirror reported on Shirley's campaigning many times, and in May 2018 we revealed on the front page the evidence her husband had been used in an experiment.
The same year, Shirley became the first veteran representative to be invited into the MoD when she held a two-hour meeting with then-Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was so persuaded by her story he ordered a medal review and research as a result of their conversation.
She opened that meeting by telling him: "You are the man who is responsible for killing my husband."
Mirror editor Alison Phillips, who met Shirley and helped organise the latest medal campaign, said: “She was indefatigable, determined, and still very much in love with her Eric. Sher served her country and the armed forces just as well as he did, forcing successive governments to open their records and challenging them to act in the best interests of service families. It was an honour to know her, and we will follow her example in campaigning for justice for as long as it takes.”
After hearing of Shirley's death, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace contacted the Mirror with the following statement: "It was with great sadness we learned of Mrs Denson’s death and send our condolences to her family.
“We gave very careful consideration to Mrs Denson’s application for the Elizabeth Cross but concluded the circumstances of her husband’s sad death did not meet the eligibility criteria.
"The department does not in any way undervalue Sqn Ldr Denson’s service and we are grateful to all those who participated in the British nuclear testing programme, which contributed to keeping our country secure.”
