Ken Miller’s death went almost unnoticed, but his funeral was conducted with the pomp and ceremony due a war hero.
Ken had died alone and childless, aged 83, after taking part in three radiation experiments which he believed left him infertile. He had hoped for at least a medal to acknowledge his service. But just days before he died the government refused, saying men like him had faced no risks.
Without a family to mourn him, his funeral was going to be an impersonal, standard service organised by officials.
But after the Mirror publicised his story, his fellow veterans pulled out all the stops to honour him at a humanist ceremony on Christmas Eve.
Ken’s coffin, draped in the flag of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, was carried into the crematorium by six ex-military pallbearers to the theme tune from A Bridge Too Far, a film that exemplifies the courage of servicemen and the madness of their generals.
The chapel at Morriston Crematorium in Swansea had expected no mourners, and planned a brief ceremony attended only by local officials.
Instead, the seats were as packed as they could be under pandemic rules for social distancing after Ken's fellow veterans rallied to give him a proper send-off.
The service heard Billie Holiday’s version of Blue Moon, which was released in 1952, the year of Britain’s first nuclear test, and the Gerry & The Pacemakers classic You’ll Never Walk Alone was also played.
Then a veteran played a poignant Last Post on the bugle and the standard of the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Families Association was dipped over Ken’s coffin. After a two minutes’ silence, the Reveille rang out.
Ken’s chum and local SSAFA volunteer David Singletary said: “I didn’t want him to go out alone. But there’s a drop-in centre for the local veterans, and I rounded them up. We veterans look after each other - we’ve got to, because the government doesn’t.”
BNTVA chairman Ceri McDade added: “Thanks to all the efforts that were made there is a far fuller picture of Ken, and we were able to give him the more personal and dignified send-off he deserved.”
Ken was one of 22,000 men, many on National Service, who were ordered to take part in Britain’s Cold War bomb tests. Fewer than 1,500 are still alive, and one of them dies, on average, every week.
Born in Oxford, Ken ran away to join the navy and was a junior rating on HMS Warrior when he was ordered to watch three atomic explosions as part of Operation Grapple, at Malden Island in the South Pacific, in 1957.
The biggest, at 720 kilotons, was 35 times more powerful than the blast which levelled the Japanese city of Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War. It was still ruled a failure by scientists, who went on to detonate much larger H-bombs the following year.
Fellow nuke vet David Taunt, 78, of Swindon, began talking to Ken on the phone during the first lockdown as a BNTVA project to help its members.
He said: “He was one of the guys who stood on the deck with his back to it and then turned round and watched the mushroom cloud rise. He said the ship they were on sailed a lot closer to the blast zone than they should have done. And of course, like all the sailors, he used distilled seawater to drink and wash in.”
Mr Taunt added: “This is what our fight’s all about. It’s trying to get something before we all go. Once we’re all gone there’s nothing left. Our descendants will fight on and so they should. But Ken had no-one to do that for him. The tests could well be why he had no children.”
After the first Grapple bombs, Warrior was sent home and Ken got a shore posting. Aged 23, met a woman called Megs on a night out and, after just three dates, the couple wed.
They were married for 30 years, but tried and failed to start a family. Megs suffered repeated miscarriages, and in later years Ken was reluctant to speak of the grief he still felt, except to say “it was a sadness, of course”.
They couple lived in Port Talbot, where Ken became a shop steward at the Ford factory and fought hard for the rights of his colleagues. He suffered years of ill health, and had a double hip replacement as well as having a lung removed.
Megs died of stomach cancer in 1990 and Ken married twice more, the last time to a Chinese internet bride called Lei Genxiao. He was refused permission to live in China with her because of his health problems, and the UK government refused to grant her a visa to live with him.
Ken battled with the authorities for years and never stopped wanting to be with her. David said: “He told me numerous times he wanted to go back to China to be with her. She may not even know that he’s died.”
He contracted a chest infection and refused friends' suggestions to see a doctor. He was eventually admitted to hospital, but his one remaining lung could not sustain him. A nurse rang a friend when the end was near, but when he arrived on the ward just 15 minutes later, Ken had died.
He had been a regular gambler, often boasting how much money he’d won on the horses. And on their regular talks, he discussed memories of the nuclear tests with David, who never met him in person and was unable to attend the funeral in Wales because of travel restrictions.
David said: “I was at Operation Dominic in 1961, when the Americans used British troops to help test close to 30 nuclear bombs at Christmas Island. I’ve got lung cancer, I’ve had heart failure, and had a pacemaker fitted 5 years ago. I’ve had the ‘suicide headaches ’ other veterans report.
“My eldest daughter was born with a hole in her heart. That grew itself out. My youngest daughter has had five miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy. I’ve got three grandsons and all of them seem find, thank God. But you live with the anxiety all the time. My grandson is having a child in May and I'm worried about that.”
His best friend from the tests died of heart failure aged just 52, and had a son who died of the same condition at 31.
David said there were also some fond memories of the test, which he shared with Ken during their chats.
“My job was to look after the landing craft, and then later the motor transport workshop. We had four Land Rovers, some pushbikes and a go-cart,” he said. “Then one day we discovered the Yanks’ bed mattresses were 10 times more comfortable than ours, and that we could get four in the back of a Land Rover. We got caught, of course, but at the time the whole thing seemed like a cushy number on a tropical island.”
David was able to get compensation from the US government due to his cancer, because that nation agrees that service at their tests was the most likely cause. But the UK still refuses payouts or any other recognition, and fights every bid for a small war pension.
He said: “Ken would have been quite happy with a medal. It would be confirmation something happened. He appreciated what the BNTVA and the Mirror were doing for us.”
The medal decision is to be reviewed in the New Year, and 10 Tory MPs, including former ministers and influential backbenchers, have written to Boris Johnson demanding he personally intervene.
