Bishop's Stortford RAF veteran recalls memories of 1950s nuclear weapons tests at ceremony attended by Rishi Sunak

An RAF veteran from Bishop's Stortford spoke at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of his role in testing British nuclear weapons in the 1950s.

John Robinson, who is president of the town's Royal British Legion branch and a familiar figure at the Remembrance Sunday service in Castle Gardens, was lead speaker at the event at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Mr Sunak announced that British nuclear tests veterans were to be officially recognised at last, after 70 years of trying, and a medal would be presented to all those who took part in the tests.

Mr Robinson was a pilot flying Canberra aircraft in No 76 Squadron RAF, taking part in Operations Buffalo, Grapple and Antler.

He told the gathered audience, which included Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and veterans' affairs minister Johnny Mercer, that in October 1956 he flew as second sampler for round three of Operation Buffalo, testing its viability to be a trigger for H bombs, remaining in the cloud for 12½ minutes.

"In March 1957 we flew to Christmas Island via Amberley, an Australian base, and Nandi, Fiji," said Mr Robinson.

"The leg from Nandi was a direct flight crossing both the equator and International Date Line without any ground navigational aids to assist us, relying on the two navigators keeping the aircraft on track with sun position lines obtained through a periscopic sextant.

"In June 1957, on Grapple 1 and 3 tests, I flew the aircraft for radio relaying purposes between Christmas Island and Malden Island area, the target for the dropping of the bombs from a Valiant aircraft.

"When given clearance I flew low level over Malden Island to make an initial survey of the damage done and was the first aircraft to do so."

Mr Robinson was back in Australia on September 14, 1957 when he flew as secondary sampler for round one of Operation Antler out of Maralinga and in the October conducted cloud tracking across Australia for round three.

He told the audience at the ceremony on November 21 that that gave them some idea of the task 76 Squadron and its crews had been given, with little or no idea what the outcome would be, adding: "I was then deemed to have reached my tolerance of radiation by the medics and my tour with No 76 Squadron ended."