THEY look like some sort of odd circus act, but these masked men are something far more disturbing — unwitting participants in a chemical warfare trial by the Ministry of Defence.
Incredibly, 22,000 British servicemen were duped into being guinea pigs in experiments exposing them to sarin gas, anthrax and even the bubonic plague between 1939 and 1989.
Sometimes unknowing civilians were used, including commuters dusted with a potentially deadly chemical on the Tube in 1963.
Meanwhile volunteers, like these men who stood under a chemical spray to see how much of it would soak into their masks, were told the trials were “totally safe”.
Many were told they were taking part in research to cure the common cold.
While the Government apologised in 2008 and paid compensation to 670 victims, for years the true nature of experiments at the “military science park” of Porton Down, Wilts, has been shrouded in secrecy.
Now a new book by historian Ulf Schmidt reveals the full story of those affected by the grisly trials at the height of Cold War paranoia. Here we profile some of the most shocking cases.
Creepy spray
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FIVE guinea pigs await a chemical spray to rain down on them from a plane in around 1956.
Their masks were later tested to see how much spray had hit them, but it is not clear why such creepy masks were used. The type of chemical being tested is also unknown.
Similar spray trials also took place above residential areas in Salisbury, Wilts, near the military boffins’ Porton Down HQ.
They were part of weapon trials but were passed off as air pollution tests.
Sarin gas chamber
RAF engineer Ronald Maddison was just 20 when he volunteered for a trial at Porton Down in May 1953.
The popular lad from Co Durham was assured he was in no danger as he was ushered into a gas chamber and given a dose of colourless gas.
It was Sarin, a deadly nerve agent now classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN.
Within hours the youngster was dead from the most severe case of nerve gas poisoning ever recorded in the Western world.
Ambulance driver Alfred Thornhill, who was called to the scene, later recalled: “It was like he was being electrocuted, his whole body was convulsing. There was terrible stuff coming out of his mouth like frogspawn. I saw his skin turning blue.”
AFTERMATH: It took 50 years before the government consented to a public inquest into Ronald’s death. In 2004 it concluded he had been “unlawfully killed” by his own government. In 2006 his family was awarded £100,000.
Virus on the Tube
ON July 26, 1963, scientists carried out an unprecedented military trial on civilians by releasing a plague-like virus on the London Underground.
At around midday, a small box of powder disguised as makeup was dropped out of the window of a Northern Line train and into the train’s ventilation system as it crossed the city.
The powder was spores of B. globigii bacteria, at the time considered harmless but which can cause food poisoning, eye infections and even potentially deadly septicaemia.
Scientists hoped to simulate what would happen if anthrax was released.
Days later engineers measured the concentration of spores in the air at various Tube stations. They found the bacteria had travelled more than nine miles.
AFTERMATH: Passengers exposed to the spores were never warned or contacted afterwards.
Officials decided the trial had to be kept secret to prevent panic and to protect national security.
Brain-addling drug
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