A NUCLEAR test veteran who watched the nuclear bomb being tested on Christmas Island has died aged 85.

Great-grandfather, Kenneth Boothman, served in the Royal Navy for 12 years and later worked as an engineer at the now defunct Padiham Power Station.

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He was on Christmas Island for a period of 12 months as one of only nine sailors.

As the only one with his own boat he would regularly row out to collect fish to be tested for radiation.

On one occasion he rowed out to sea with Sir William Penney, known as the Father of the British Bomb, after he organised a series of nuclear tests between 1952 and 1967 witnessed by 20,000 British servicemen.

Mr Boothman’s wife Joyce told how he described to her how it: “Went dark and then a flash of light. They had their hands over their eyes but could see their skeleton.”

He first took Joyce out on her 16th birthday when he was home on leave, two years after vowing he would one day marry her.

Joyce described him as “so interesting and so helpful to people”.

She said: “Whenever anyone spoke to him about anything he could always add to it and enlighten on it. He wasn’t one for going down the pub with the men. We stayed together all the time and did everything together.

“We loved each other very much. He was a character. He used to sit in our conservatory and everyone would just wave to him.”

Mr Boothman, of Park Lane, Burnley, had a colourful family history with a great-great-great grandmother said to have been a Cornish pirate and also claimed to be related to the famous Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.

He was widely travelled and the couple spent a period living in Libya where Mr Boothman assisted the Libyans with a desalination plant while Mrs Boothman, a nurse, ran a clinic for foreign workers.

He also spent time in both Borneo and in Malta where he was particularly keen to show the people the British style of fishing with a rod and line.

In later years Mr Boothman enjoyed shooting and fishing in particular and would travel to Malta around three times a year to meet up with Maltese fishing pals.

Mrs Boothman said: “His second home was Malta because all his fishing friends lived there.”

Mr Boothman passed away on Easter Sunday from cancer and is set to have his ashes scattered in Malta.

He also leaves daughter Lesley-Anne Ashworth, grandchildren Jordan and Ashley Ashworth, great-granddaughter Mia Weatherall, eight and sister Pamela.

His funeral will take place today at Burnley Crematorium at 10.30am.

Tomorrow (Wed) would have been the couple’s 57th wedding anniversary.