Mike Atkinson, bomb-disposal officer who was targeted by the IRA after defusing a powerful device

Major Mike Atkinson, who has died aged 67, was a bomb-disposal officer who dealt with more than 1,000 explosive-related incidents in a career which saw him defuse bombs in Northern Ireland, as well as reportedly the largest bomb to date in Germany, as a result of which he was targeted for assassination by the IRA.
It also saw him parade naked for Margaret Thatcher, as well as becoming an acknowledged authority on military medals and the designer of the British Iraq war medal in 2003. Atkinson was an expert on Napoleon Bonaparte and possessed one of his personal medals.
Asked what he was thinking as he attempted to defuse a bomb – which might at any millisecond atomise him – he replied that he simply thought of it as a series of small problems to address and solve, one after the other.
Michael Neil Atkinson, always known as Mick, was born on September 14 1957 in the British Military Hospital Gibraltar into an Army family. His father, Maurice, was a sergeant-major and his mother, Sylvia, who was born in Madras, had been in the Women's Royal Army Corps.
Atkinson had a peripatetic childhood, with his father's postings to West Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and back home in the UK. In 1974 he enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Army Apprentices College, Chepstow, graduating in 1976 as an ammunition technician responsible for maintaining the safe use, storage and disposal of ammunition and explosives.
He completed two gruelling tours of bomb-disposal duties (Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD) in Northern Ireland in 1979 and 1984. In his first tour he worked in Belfast, where the tempo of operations was intense. On a single day, July 4 1979, he blew up six suspect vehicles using a remote-controlled robot nicknamed the 'wheelbarrow' – resulting in the eventual loss of the robot.
Atkinson's second tour was based in Armagh, including the 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh, where he defused a number of large IRA improvised explosive devices, or IEDs – including a 300lb car bomb, and a 600lb landmine deliberately planted to kill the EOD team.
From the end of 1982 until the middle of 1986 Atkinson was based in West Germany with the British Army of the Rhine, then 55,000-strong. With a great deal of live-firing training, the demands upon ammunition technical staff were exacting.
On a subsequent tour in Germany, in May 1990, Atkinson was responsible for defusing the most powerful IRA bomb discovered in Germany, at Langenhagen Barracks in Hanover, consisting of more than 100lb of Semtex high explosive.
During the subsequent court proceedings his personal details were disclosed, and this was to have serious consequences for Atkinson and his family. Some time later, back in the UK, his wife saw two men in their garden; they were later identified as IRA terrorists on a reconnaissance mission with the intention of assassinating him. He and his family were immediately relocated.
In 1986 Atkinson completed a short tour in the Falkland Islands, where he was kept busy with the explosive and ammunition left-overs, principally Argentinian, from the 1982 conflict.
On one occasion, on what was officially known as a Counter Improvised Nuclear Device Emergency Response (CINDER) demonstration, Atkinson, thanks to a tear in his protective clothing, had to complete the full decontamination drills – which included him having to shower naked in front of Mrs Thatcher.
In June 1992, after a six-month posting to Belsize, Atkinson, by then a Warrant Officer (Class 1), was commissioned as an Ammunition Technical Officer.
In 2000 he resigned his commission and accepted the offer of a post as a Retired Officer and deputy in charge of the Army Medal Office in Droitwich. With his interest and expertise in medals and his usual enthusiasm he was well-suited for the job as it entered possibly the busiest time in the history of the office.
There, he was described as an enthusiastic perfectionist with a deep knowledge and passion for medals. He designed the 2003 Iraq War medal which features on the reverse an image of Lamassu, an ancient Assyrian deity with the head of a man and the body of a bull, above the word 'IRAQ'. He said the idea came to him while he was lying in his bath.
Atkinson was an expert on Napoleon and regularly lectured on the man, his battles and his leadership. The subject allowed him to combine two of his great enthusiasms, the studies of history and of medals.
Atkinson bought what he believed was a medal which had once belonged to the Emperor and made it his mission to prove its provenance – in which he succeeded.
His research also included the Royal Flying Corps and German First World War medals. In 2005 he updated the Queen's Royal Medals Collection.
He was a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and the Birmingham Medals Society. He also regularly briefed new bomb disposal officers and lectured at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham in Oxfordshire.
Atkinson was a modest and generous person who for many years acted as a carer and friend for a soldier injured by a bomb in Oman in the early 1970s. He was always fit – he ran for the Army, was a keen walker and took part in the demanding Nijmegen Marches, which claim to be the world's largest multi-day walking event.
Mike Atkinson is survived by his wife Christine and their son.
Mike Atkinson, born September 14 1957, died March 31 2025
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