Kiritimati/Christmas Island, Kiribati 1958

Kiribati located in the central Pacific Ocean, consists of 33 coral islands and atolls. These are divided among three island groups: the Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands.

The largest coral atoll is Kiritimati/Christmas Island, which is part of the Line Islands and is where Britain established a nuclear testing base for Operation Grapple, the H-Bomb trials. The first 3 Grapple drops were off Malden Island (approx. 400 nautical miles south of Christmas Island).   

Michael Macfarlane

We have many collections of photos from Christmas Island from Operation Grapple and Operation Dominic but I have decided to share this fantastic collection and the story behind it.  Last year the BNTVA was given an old archive box from an ex-trustee; contained inside was lots of correspondence from the early 2000's.

One letter I found was from Michael MacFarlane. It contained over 40 photos and the letter finished off saying he had included postage to return the photos. After some detective work, I managed to track down Michael, who was no longer a BNTVA member. He was pleasantly surprised by my letter, and I offered to return his photos which I put into an archival album. Before the end of last year I delivered his lost photos back to him and discovered that they had originally been sent in around 2006 and one photo had been used in the 'Campaign' magazine. 

Here is a selection of collection and the full thing will be added shortly.     

Michael was part of the RAF Catering team and he was in charge of the food stores at the Junior Ranks Mess. His photos include many of the catering team at main camp, I have added names where I have them if you can fill in the gaps please let us know. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michael for allowing the BNTVA to share his wonderful collection,  if anyone has anything they can add please get in contact.
info@bntva.com