The Saltash Veteran Who Watched an Atomic Bomb Go Off

He was still a teenager when he stood and watched an atomic bomb go off. Roger Grace was doing National Service in the Royal Navy at the time, off the coast of Australia, in 1956. He lives in Saltash now. Next month he is going to tell that story on stage at his local cinema.

A screening and a Q&A in Saltash

Saltash Studios Cinema is hosting a special screening of a new documentary about nuclear testing on Friday 10 July at 7.30pm. The film is Our Planet. The People. My Blood, rated 15.

After it ends there is a Q&A with two people who know the subject from very different angles. One is the director, Daniel Everitt-Lock. The other is Roger Grace, a Saltash resident and atomic veteran who appears in the film.

Two atomic tests off the Australian coast

Roger was a teenager on National Service in the Royal Navy when he was sent halfway around the world. In May 1956 he witnessed the first of two atomic bomb tests on the Montebello Islands, off the north-west coast of Australia. The second test, in June 1956, was the largest the UK had ever carried out.

Decades of denial

Our Planet. The People. My Blood sets out to uncover the long-hidden story of nuclear testing and its fallout. Roger is one of the people featured, alongside Alan Owen, a descendant of an Atomic Soldier who has spent years fighting for the rights of those affected by nuclear weapons testing around the world.

The screening also supports a current campaign to declassify the medical records of British nuclear test veterans. Those records are due to be released to servicemen and their families for the first time this year.

Daniel started the project nine years ago. “Nine years ago, I watched a short film about nuclear test veterans and couldn’t believe no one was talking about it. I set out to make a documentary that offered a deeply human account of the communities forgotten by the governments that harmed them,” he said.

The film took three years to make and covered 150,000 kilometres across three continents. It gathered more than 50 testimonies from communities including indigenous Marshall Islanders, the Maralinga Tjarutja of Australia, the Spokane Nation of the United States, and survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their accounts run from environmental catastrophe to health problems, both for the people exposed and for their descendants.

“This documentary shows the years of denial from one of the oldest establishments in the UK and across the world,” said Alan Owen, who co-founded LABRAT’s international. “The affected communities now have a voice through this incredible piece of work. My family’s story is just one of thousands which has been suppressed, it can now be heard.”

Since it was finished, the film has been endorsed by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and UN House Scotland. A Parliamentary screening in January 2026 won cross-party support, and the film has been picked up by Jambika Docs for international distribution.

Tickets

Tickets are £8, £7 and £4. They are available from www.saltashstudios.org or by phone on 07303 143751.