Nuclear bomb test claimant dies

NO COMPENSATION: Malcolm Harris was awarded a special service medal for service during the nuclear test series in the Pacific but got no financial compensation for the risks of radiation. PHOTO/FILE

The second of three Wairarapa men who put their names to a mass claim for compensation for dangerous naval service in the Pacific more than 50 years ago has died having not received a cent.

Malcolm Harris, 76, died of cancer last Thursday still awaiting a payout from a class action adjudicated in a London court in 2009.

The retired engineer was a crewman aboard HMNZS Pukaki and witnessed five bomb tests in the Pacific in the late 1950s.

Years afterwards he spoke of the health outcomes of those tests, saying he had suffered years of rashes and dermatitis, deafness, joint pain and post-traumatic stress.

Along with two other Wairarapa veterans, Jim Ferguson and Bill Amundsen, Mr Harris and hundreds of other veterans from New Zealand, Australia, Britain and Fiji won clearance to sue the British Ministry of Defence for radiation exposure.

In 2009 the ministry contested the right of the veterans to sue, claiming they had waited too long and had exceeded the statute of limitations.

At a hearing in the High Court in London, Justice David Foskett ruled in favour of the veterans' court action being able to proceed but since then matters have see-sawed.

The ministry appealed and won and then Supreme Court judges ruled 4-3 in favour of the ministry.

Lawyers for the claimants have not abandoned the class action, but it has become deadlocked.

With the death of Mr Harris, the Wairarapa claimants are down to one as Mr Ferguson has also died.

Mr Harris, along with other veterans of the nuclear test series code-named Operation Grapple, received only a special services medal "for hazardous duty".

At the time he received the medal, Mr Harris described being a witness to the bomb tests.

"We were at ground zero - as it was called - and after the explosions we steamed right through the radiation cloud," he said.

The bombs tested at Christmas Island were plated with depleted uranium, which veterans had not known about, and was described by Mr Harris as being "deadly stuff".

Mr Harris is survived by his wife Margaret and three adult children.

A funeral service will be held for him at 11am today at the Wairarapa Services and Citizens Club.