The Queen has given fresh hope to Britain’s Cold War heroes and backed their bid for a medal.

She has given her formal approval to a review of the nuclear veterans’ case for a gong, following a long Mirror campaign for recognition.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who is driving the campaign in Parliament, said: “This is great news at last for the test veterans, who were promised this review almost a year ago.

"We must now do all we can to ensure the committee has all the evidence it needs to make the right recommendation, so the Queen can approve the medal that is so thoroughly deserved.”

The Cabinet Office confirmed the Queen’s approval had been “sought and received” to reconsider the veterans’ claim that their involvement in atomic weapons experiments was exceptional and dangerous service.

It comes after we revealed how, in 1959, Prince Philip visited the South Pacific testing grounds and plans were made to drop him at Ground Zero.

A chairman has already been appointed and the medal committee is expected to begin taking evidence later in the spring. After that, it will advise the Queen on whether to issue a medal.

It will be led by Dr Charles Winstanley, a former army major who saw active duty in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. He has experience on the boards of NHS trusts, the General Medical Council and the audit committee of the Supreme Court.

The rest of the committee has yet to be recruited, but campaigners have urged Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson that they should include historians, biologists and physicists.

It follows a 10,000-strong petition, and massive cross-party Parliamentary support following the Mirror’s revelations in May about secret experiments using personnel.

Around 22,000 men took part in dozens of nuclear experiments. Most took place in Australia and the South Pacific between 1952 and 1967. A further series of tests were conducted with the Americans in Nevada, with the last test taking place in 1991.

It is thought only 1,500 of the men survive, and they report rare blood disorders, sterility and cancers.

Their wives have three times the normal rate of miscarriage and their children 10 times the usual amount of birth defects.

The Ministry of Defence has always denied they were deliberately irradiated, but in 2009 officials admitted 10 per cent were exposed when they were ordered to chase the fallout plumes in ships and planes.

And in May last year we revealed new evidence that some were unwitting guinea pigs in radiation experiments.

Veterans have criticised previous medal committees as “whitewashes” after they were run by retired senior officers and a MoD civil servant, and took no evidence from veterans or historians about the nature of their service.

• For the full story of Britain’s nuclear heroes, read The Damned

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