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Stornoway, Lewis
There are no more Scottish servicemen involved in the nuclear war weapons tests able to carry the flag standard at parades.
The remaining few atomic veterans alive are elderly and getting too frail to carry the standard any distance meaning the banner of the British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association (BNTVA) was laid down for the final time on Sunday during the 71st anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
It will now remain in Martin’s Memorial Church in Stornoway. The veterans’ body said it was delighted to opt for the island church after getting no response to their request to lay the flag at Paisley Abbey where it was originally raised.
The standard has been carried at main armed forces events to commemorate the Scottish contribution amongst 20,000 personnel involved in the nuclear experiments.
In the nuclear arms race against the Soviet Union in the 1950s, Britain detonated a number of atomic bombs, vastly more powerful than the Hiroshima explosion, at Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean and at Australia.
Servicemen from the Army, Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force were sent to the tests. But they had no protection against the radiation and claim serious illnesses including bone cancer and birth defects in their children were caused by the radio active exposure.
One of the last flag bearers was local man Roddy Moffat who was on Christmas Island in 1958.
After Sunday’s ceremony in Stornoway, Mr Moffat, believed to be the only atomic veteran on Lewis, said he had been proud to have carried the standard and “represented all those who through ill health or death cannot be with us.”
He said though it was a sad and emotional day it was an “honour for the standard to be laid beside the Book of Remembrance which lists the names of 125 airmen of different nations who died flying out of Stornoway (RAF base) in World War 2.”
Bob Smith, 73, a trustee of the BNTVA said: “There is not enough people left to carry the standard so it is laid out in the church.”
He said: “Standard bearer Roddy Moffat lives here in Stornoway and we thought it was a good place for it. It’s a lovely church and we couldn’t have made a better choice.”
Scotland’s atomic veterans’ flag is retired in Stornoway 21/9/11
Bob Smith and Roddy Moffat (right)