An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans
Welcome to the homepage for ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’, a project funded by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs and conducted by researchers from the University of South Wales and the University of Liverpool. The project partner is National Life Stories at the British Library.
The Project
Please register your interest by clicking below!
Latest News
We are currently collecting project questionnaires. If you are a nuclear test veteran (NTV) or the partner/relative of an NTV, then please consider completing a questionnaire by clicking on the relevant button.
Blog
Read more about the project and follow our progress.
The Team
Dr Chris Hill, Principal Investigator, University of South Wales
Chris is a Cold War historian, with particular interests in environmental and imperial aspects of nuclear energy and weapons programmes.
christopher.hill@southwales.ac.uk
Dr Jon Hogg, Co-investigator, University of Liverpool
Jon is a social and cultural historian of the nuclear Cold War. His first book British Nuclear Culture helped establish nuclear culture studies as an influential field of research.
jgh@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Fiona Bowler, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of South Wales
Fiona is a historian of twentieth-century Britain, an oral history specialist, and the granddaughter of a nuclear test veteran. Her PhD thesis is entitled: ‘The British Nuclear Test Veteran: Radiation, Activism, and the Soldier’s Body, 1952-2002’.
fiona.bowler@southwales.ac.uk
The Partnership
National Life Stories was established in 1987 as a charitable trust and limited company within the British Library to capture the life stories of British people who would otherwise be unrecorded.
NLS has extensive experience in running oral history programmes, archiving interviews for public access and innovative dissemination - recording over 3,500 interviews totalling some 20,000 hours. The NLS archival and curatorial team will offer support and advice throughout the project. For more information see www.bl.uk/nls.
“National Life Stories at the British Library is delighted to be the archive partner for this innovative and important project.”
Your Life Stories
The project takes a ‘life story’ approach to oral history. It has three specific aims:
to establish the changing contexts and meanings of test participation over the course of veterans’ lives
to recognise the service and struggles of nuclear test veterans through educational materials, film and public engagement events
to learn from the experience of nuclear test veterans for the benefit of the veteran community and their families.
The Process
The project has three stages over a two-year period (April 2023-April 2025):
1) Research sampling. Data will be collected through online questionnaires and focus groups. This will be open to all nuclear test veterans who participated in British operations between 1952 and 1967.
2) Interview recording. Around 40 veterans will be selected for the life history interviews. A further 5-10 within that cohort will also be selected for film interviews with Sasha Snow, an award-winning filmmaker.
3) Archiving and Events. The life histories will be stored and made freely available on British Library Sounds. Touring engagement events will showcase educational resources and the project film.
