NOBODY knows what was going through Ronald Maddison's mind those last few moments as he sat in a Government lab waiting for a deadly poison to be dripped on his arm.

Whether he was worried, confident or even if he knew what was going on at all is lost for ever.

For that experiment, conducted by scientists serving Ronnie's own British Government, was enough to kill the 20-year-old County Durham airman in less than an hour.

It was, in the words of the author of a book about Ronnie's death published this Thursday, the 'darkest hour' of the British Government chemical warfare establishment at Porton Down.

Not that author and Guardian journalist, Rob Evans, is unfair to the rural chemical warfare base in Wiltshire in his book, 'Gassed'. Balanced and informative, it is scrupulously fair to the authorities who unwittingly sanctioned the needless death of the quiet and popular Consett man in 1953.

It is that fairness, that sense of accuracy and even handedness, that makes the stark conclusions of the book even more frightening.

Conclusions that show that some 'volunteers' were actually forced to take part in the tests, that Porton scientists broke the Nuremberg code of ethics, that more than 3,000 British troops were exposed to nerve gas alone and that British spies investigated the uses of LSD at the plant.

But most frightening of all is the allegation, made by many of the 100 volunteers that Rob Evans talked to, that young men like Ronnie were routinely conned into volunteering for experiments they would never otherwise have undertaken.

It is an allegation also made by the friends and family of Ronnie.

Ronald Maddison died on May 6, 1953, as a result of 200 milligrams of the deadly nerve gas sarin being dropped on his skin. He was part of a huge experiment to find out exactly how much nerve gas would kill a human.

But, if the testimony of his close friend, Jack Wilson and his cousin, Ella Forster, in Gassed is correct, Ronald had no idea that he was going to take part in a nerve gas experiment at all.

In the book, Mr Wilson says Ronnie had told him he was going to Porton for some 'mild' experiments to find a cure for the common cold or flu.

He had been told by other servicemen that 'it was a holiday camp' he was going to.

Mrs Forster adds that Ronnie merely volunteered so he could have a short holiday to visit his family. It was a decision by a young homesick man that cost him his life.

Perhaps today a young man like Ronnie would have a little more savvy before volunteering for experiments and would ask more questions. It's a point made by the man who sat next to Ronnie in that lab, Mike Cox.

He said: "There was a feeling that they knew what they were doing, that they would not subject us to anything that was in the least bit nasty."

No other volunteer died from those experiments - even though some of them apparently had higher doses than Ronnie. But others allege they have suffered serious health problems as a result of them.

Now Wiltshire police are investigating the incident to find out exactly what happened with a view to possibly charging Porton with 'corporate manslaughter.'

At last it seems the memory of Ronnie is being used to find out the truth after nearly 50 years of secrecy.

As Ronnie's sister, 66-year-old Lillian Craik, said in her first newspaper interview this week: "That's something really worthwhile.

"My family didn't fight about it at the time. They came and told my Dad about it and he would never discuss it again. I asked him once when I was pregnant but even then he said, 'just don't ask.' It has been with us all our lives. Now, finally we might get the truth.

"That's what Ronnie would have wanted.