Now that I have finished sharing my Salisbury travels I shall return to my visit to the National Memorial Arboretum.
Formed in 1983, the Association is a focus for the men who served at the test sites and combines comradeship with the objective of recognition of the ill effects suffered by some veterans.
Beginning in 1952 and continuing until 1965 there were 21 major British nuclear tests and numerous minor tests at the sites listed on the memorial.*
The memorial (grotto) is a replica of a shell-decorated memorial situated on Christmas Island where some of the British nuclear tests took place.*
*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4
Nothing to be proud about, indeed.
No nothing to be proud about. The memorial serves as a reminder and a memory to those who were affected…
I (think I) know.
And it is good to ‘know’ that you ‘know’ that, as always, I did not intend to attack you(r) post.
The peace of the night, CherryPie.
The peace of the night to you too
What I didn’t mention in the post is that membership of the association is limited to men who served, their widows and descendants. One third of the members are widows.
And of the other 66 percent how many are descendants?
I got the information from the guidebook it doesn’t say who makes up the rest of the %.
I think the point they were making is that it is unusually high proportion of women making up the membership. The membership of veterans associations is usually mainly male.
Ah, thank you for explaining, CherryPie.
Is this to honour them men who agreed to be tested for dangerous biochemicals,by being injected with them? I heard that they often didn’t even bother getting their consent or informing them.
In America they do similar. If prisoners agree to be test subjects for dangerous,untested drugs they can get time off their sentence. Appalling practice given how vulnerable those men are.
The were the veterans that tested the nuclear bomb. You can find out more on the following links:
http://www.bntva.com/
http://www.janeresture.com/christmas_bombs/index.htm
Christmas Island! I’d like to visit the island one day!
It certainly has some history…
That’s really interesting! My dad’s best friend works with decommissioning a major power plant north-west of Liverpool and he’s not allowed to talk about it. He’s not even allowed to have a smart phone.
I should think that is for security reasons. Lots of temptation for a potential terrorist or the like.
Lots out there right now owing to the 100th anniversary of the first world war. I really liked the memorial arboretum shown on TV recently. Derbyshire I think. A great place to sit, walk, relax etc.
The Memorial Arboretum is in Alrewas in Staffordshire. This is one of the memorials there.
It is a special place to visit.