From Our Files - Argyllshire Advertiser November 1 2024

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Friday October 29 2004

Geri awarded for nuclear service on Christmas Island

A Lochgilphead man has been awarded The British Nuclear Weapons Tests Medal for service in a nuclear testing area.

Geri MacPherson, who celebrated his 69th birthday on Monday, was at Christmas Island, 178 miles north of the Equator for a year between 1960 and 1961.

Geri, a shorthand typist, was clerk to the base commander of the island. The medal was awarded by The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association. 

Geri said: ‘HRH The Queen agreed to the New Zealand servicemen being awarded a medal but not the home infantry.’ 

He said this was the reason for the test veterans bringing out their own medal.

The medal’s ribbon is white on the edges representing the blinding white flash that comes before the fireball when a nuclear bomb goes off.

Geri remembers his journey to Christmas Island: ‘We stopped over at Hickam Air Base, this was machine gunned by Japanese aircraft when Pearl Harbour was attacked. The pock marks of the bullets had been left on the walls.

‘We sunbathed for two days on Waikiki beach as part of our acclimatisation programme. Then down to Christmas Island to maximum humidity and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. No factor eight or anything else there.’ 

He said: ‘I was not attached to the SHQ, (Station Head Quarters) my designation and job was to work as clerk to the base commander in the last few months of Operation Task Force Grapple.

‘During the run down time that lasted from February-May 1960, the adjutant urged me to go to the Astra Cinema in the main camp to see a restricted classified film in full colour of all the nuclear tests carried out to date on the island. 

‘All the nuclear drops were from aircraft, except the last one code-named ‘Buffalo’ which was just above ground level. All the while we were told that these were clean bombs.’

Geri continued: ‘During May the main operation was stepped down and the island was put on a minimum holding strength until the next series of nuclear tests began.

‘I was retained on the island to serve in SHQ and to produce a news sheet, The Mid Pacific News.

‘The remaining servicemen worked shorter hours and things were pretty relaxed. Once a month we could go up to Hickam airbase on the mail-kite on the Thursday night and come back on the Tuesday morning. Free water ski-ing on Saturdays and Sundays was available, go-cart racing at the airfield.

‘We could fish seven days a week for jacks, bone fish, uloha, barracuda or sharks.

‘Puffer fish were hopeless they had teeth like rabbits and simply bit through the line. Trips were arranged to the forward area where on one occasion I stood on a huge white concrete pad with curious aluminium pods at each corner.

‘This prompted me to think that if I had been there 10 months previously when the Buffalo bomb went off that I would have been instantly vaporised and what little crummy bits that would have been left of me would then have shot out in every direction at 2,000 miles per hour, only to be sooked back in again at a similar speed when the fireball rose causing a vacuum. 

‘Then it would have been upwards for 15,000 feet.’

FORTY YEARS AGO

Friday November 2 1984

Farmers take to the air in fight against bracken 

Farmers are taking to the air to beat the problems of bracken. Helicopters are being used by several farmers in Mid Argyll and Kintyre to spread mineral phosphates in a two-stage process to eradicate bracken.

In the first stage the bracken is sprayed — usually in the summer. It stays green but the following year it does not re-appear. Then the helicopter-borne phosphates are spread to enrich the soil.

Mr John Warmerdam, of Rhudle Farm, Dunadd, is among those using the technique. ‘Bracken is a major problem in the West Highlands,’ he said. ‘It grows on the best soil - not in bogs or heathery ground but in good soil.’

Bracken roots go deep into the soil. ‘A thin cover of bracken is not a disaster but it gets thick fairly quickly and then the ground is totally wasted,’ said Mr Warmerdam.

With fewer cattle being kept on the hills the problem is getting worse because cattle trample the bracken down. ‘It is a constant enemy,’ said Mr Warmerdam.

Helicopters have two advantages - their speed and the fact they can reach parts tractors find inaccessible.

The farmer does not of course have to fly the helicopter - with John Warmerdam the whole operation including the helicopter hire was organised through Kintyre Farmers.

At Rhudle Farm 20 acres are being treated by helicopter which spreads six hundredweight of phosphates to the acre at a rate of two minutes an acre.

Mr Warmerdam said that the first stage - bracken-spraying - cost approximately £45 per acre and the helicopter stage costs around the same. Fifty per cent grants from the Dept. of Agriculture are available if the phosphate treatment is carried out.

Mr Warmerdam said that it was natural mineral phosphates which were used with no chemicals added.

With the strength and prevalence of bracken, treatment does eradicate it thought it does keep it at bay for several years. 

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Tuesday October 27, 1964

Cancel to combat vandalism

In a dual bid to combat vandalism and improve the amenity of the public conveniences on the Front Green, Lochgilphead Town Council is to embark on a programme of tiling over the next two d years.

Reporting on this development last week, Bailie Dr Margaret M. Dewar, convener of the public health committee, complained that just before the meeting started, she had inspected the latest outbreak of vandalism in the ladies’ convenience.

Grass and paper had been rammed in the plug holes of the wash hand basins and the entire floor area was flooded.

When the tiling programme was completed, Bailie Dr Dewar added, she would recommend that the institute caretaker be made responsible for cleaning the conveniences three times daily under the supervision of the Clerk of works.

Emphasising that the supervision was not intended as a reflection on the caretaker, Bailie Dr Dewar pointed out that the caretaker would be able to prove he was attending to his duties if he was witnessed by another town official. 

There had been complaints that the conveniences were not being cleaned regularly but she knew the caretaker was attending to his duties.