Pete Peters’ son feared his father would have no mourners. But after public appeals, people came out in droves to honour the last hero of Operation Bagpipes
A Cold War hero who flew top secret atomic missions has been laid to rest with full military honours after well-wishers turned out in droves.
Veterans and villagers lined the streets of Lakenheath in Suffolk to send Squadron Leader Pete Peters on his final journey, after hearing that there would be no-one to attend his funeral.
His son Gareth had feared he would be the only person in attendance, but after the Mirror alerted the Ministry of Defence and veteran groups, Pete got the send-off he deserved.
The RAF Association provided a bugler, standard bearer and coffin drape, while former RAF chaplain Eddie Wynn gave a reading. Following appeals on social media, veterans and the public turned out to witness the procession and packed out the crematorium to hear tributes.
Pete, 94, was the last survivor of Operation Bagpipes, and flew three times through US mushroom clouds to gather data for allied weapons scientists in 1954. He described his crew as “pioneers” in bring able to pilot high-altitude electric Canberra jets through the turbulence to gather data in special filters installed in the wing-tips and bomb bay.
His son said: “He flew all over the world, sucking up atomic debris in some very high-risk activities. The end result of that was that our atomic scientists were able to work out what the Russians were doing.”
After nuclear veterans won a long campaign for a medal under the last Tory government, Pete was refused his, on the basis he was not exposed to British radiation. After the Mirror took up his case, Labour’s Defence Secretary John Healey ordered a rethink – and Pete, real name Patrick, got his medal hand-delivered in time for Remembrance Sunday.
It meant his fellow crew members of 1323 Flight and 540 Squadron, some of them lost at sea and never found because of the secrecy of the mission, also qualified for recognition. The medal was later extended to hundreds of others who took part in sampling of French and Chinese clouds.
Gareth said the campaign brightened his father’s final years, and as a result he got to visit the museum where the cockpit of his Canberra bomber was preserved, and was invited to share his story with academics and students.
When Armed Forces Minister Al Carns visited the old pilot to deliver the medal in person, Pete told him “it’s about bloody time”.
READ MORE: ‘About bloody time’ – Nuke test hero finally gets medal to honour sacrifice after 70 years
He believed every one of his crew mates died from cancer, and credited his own survival from a colon tumour to the skill of an NHS surgeon. Pete had blood tests taken before and after his flights, but was never told the results.
Inspired to fly by the sight of prisoners of war returning home through a local air base as a boy, Pete ended up at Bomber Command, flying deep inside enemy territory to gather intelligence on nuclear weapons. He also piloted the nuke-armed Victor bombers on Iron Curtain patrols, keeping Europe safe.
Over a 40-year RAF career he served in Germany with NATO and in psychological warfare at the MoD in Whitehall. He married family friend Rosemary, with whom he was deeply in love for 66 years until her death in 2022. They had two children.
Before the Last Post and Reveille rang out at the crematorium, Gareth quoted his father’s own words, from his memoirs: “In turns I have been challenged, tried and tested, overworked, frightened stiff and many times thrown off a cliff – but I have never, never, been bored.”