P3529174 & J86856 ~ PETER LEONARD WEATHERILL – RAF, RNZAF
A few weeks ago I opened an email around half-past midnight from “John O’R.” whom I do not know. The email had arrived unsolicited with no message but simply a Trade-Me URL enclosed. I opened the URL which revealed a picture of two full size medals plus a miniature medal that being offered for sale by “Johnny” whose Trade-Me name was “Otago Coin.” John Lindsay, known to all as Johnny, is the proprietor of Otago Coin and a specialist numismatic trader whose Dunedin premises is in Church Street, Mosgiel. I could hardly believe my eyes! The medals I was looking at had belonged to Sergeant Peter Weatherill, a former Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft technician who had registered his medals missing with MRNZ in August 2016. In fact when Peter registered with us, his medals had already been missing for some 16+ years!
Peter Weatherill served in two air forces during a thirty year career that encompassed service in both the Royal Air Force and the RNZAF during which time he was awarded two medals for service in both – the General Service Medal (1962) with two Clasps while serving in the RAF, and the RNZAF Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
RAF Far East Air Force (RAF FEAF)
Peter had enlisted in the RAF in Oct 1960 initially as a guided weapons technician before re-mustering to Instrument Technician specialising in maintenance and repairs of aircraft instrumentation. In early 1964 he was posted for a year’s tour of duty to the RAF Far East Air Force (RAF FEAF) and to 103 Aircraft Maintenance Unit at the aircraft Repair Depot based at RAF Station Khormaksar in Aden, Yemen. Aden had been a British colony since 1839 and a military base in Aden established during WW1 in 1917. The RAF was deployed as part of the response to the Aden Emergency (1963-67), an insurgency operation by Yemeni rebel forces against British rule in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Emergency was declared on 10 December 1963 after a grenade attack at the Aden Airport against the British High Commissioner to Aden. The air power deployed to RAF Station Khormaksar consisted variously of the English Electric Lightning, Hawker Hunter & Demon, Venom, Shackleton, Andover and Dakota aircraft. The Belvedere and Whirlwind helicopters at that time were the primary search and rescue response aircraft. Senior Aircraftsman (SAC) Peter Weatherill returned to the UK in Nov 1965. The Aden Emergency had hastened British plans for withdrawal and marked the end of 20 years of decolonisation. RAF Station Khormaksar closed in November 1967.
Re-deployed overseas in 1967, SAC Weatherill was again posted to the RAF FEAF, this time to Cyprus and RAF Station Akrotiri, home to the RAF’s Operational Support Unit. Peter predominantly worked on the primary strike aircraft deployed in Cyprus, the English Electric Lightening. In later years, the Avro Vulcan, Hercules, Argosy, and Canberra bomber aircraft were part of the aircraft inventory on Cyprus. Whirlwind and Wessex helicopters were also deployed primarily in the search and rescue role, supporting the operations of the Mountain Desert Rescue Unit (MDRU). SAC Weatherill was a member of the MDRT whose job it was to locate crashed aircraft in mountainous and desert terrain, recover any survivors or bodies, recover all sensitive materials and secret equipment, and to destroy the remains to obliterate any evidence that may have been used adversely against the British government. Peter returned to the UK in early 1970 where he decided upon a trade change. He attended No4 Technical Training School at RAF St Athen to complete his role change from the highly specialised aircraft instrumentation maintenance to the more widely encompassing and varied role of an Aircraft Technician.
General Service Medal (1962 >)
P3529174 SAC P.L. WEATHERILL RAF was awarded the General Service Medal 1962 (GSM) with two Clasps: SOUTH ARABIA, and RADFAN for his service with the RAF FEAF. The GSM was awarded for active service in numerous minor campaigns from 1962 onwards. Commonly referred to as the 1962 GSM, the medal represented service in often arduous campaigns and well fought operations, evidenced by the casualties that were frequently sustained. There were 14 clasps awarded with the 1962 GSM for campaigns in the Far East, Middle East and Near East (Asia), and Ireland. The medal was never issued without a clasp, each clasp being worn in the order that the recipient qualified for it. The maximum number of clasps awarded to any one individual is believed to be six.
Clasp – RADFAN
The first clasp on Peter’s 1962 GSM is RADFAN awarded to service personnel who served for at least 14 days between 25 April and 31 July 1964 in the campaign in the Radfan Mountains, mounted with South Arabia Federation troops against the Egyptian/Yemini backed Radfan tribesmen. They were quickly and effectively defeated. Those taking part included a brigade size army force (approx 3-5 battalions of 1500-4000 men), members of 815 Naval Air Squadron, sailors on HMS Centaur, and RAF aircrews. In 1967, eligibility for the RADFAN clasp was extended to include those who served in a supporting role in Aden, such as the MDRT.
Clasp – SOUTH ARABIA
The SOUTH ARABIA clasp was related to the Radfan Campaign as both were Egyptian-inspired attempts to end the British presence in Aden and end the embryonic Federation of South Arabia. This 3-year long campaign saw numerous terrorist attacks on both civilian and military targets. In both Radfan and Aden, the British Army suffered 90 personnel killed and 510 wounded. The qualifying period was 30 days service in the Federation of South Arabia between 1 August 1964 and 30 November 1967.
RAF SU Tengah and the RNZAF
Peter’s next period of overseas service began in 1972 with the RAF Support Unit at Tengah Air Base in Singapore (Hawker Hunters, English Electric Canberras). When his posting ended in 1975 and not wishing to return to the UK, Peter being a qualified instrument technician, applied to join the RNZAF and was immediately accepted. He arrived in New Zealand that same year and started his service at RNZAF Base Woodbourne in Blenheim with the Aircraft Reconditioning Squadron. Corporal Peter Weatherill remained at Woodbourne until retiring from the RNZAF as Sergeant Instrument Fitter in 1987. Coincidentally, I had met Peter on a number of occasions during my own service at the Airman Cadet School in Woodbourne from 1981-1983.
J86856 CPL P.L. WEATHERILL RNZAF served for 12 years at Woodbourne. With six years of eligible RAF service added to his RNZAF service, Peter met the qualifying criteria for the award of the RNZAF Long Service & Good Conduct Medal whilst a Corporal, during his service at Woodbourne. Awarded for 18 years long and efficient service, free from any serious misconduct, the eighteen year qualifying period of service was reduced to fifteen years service in 1985. Following his retirement from the RNZAF, Peter worked as a Defence Civilian at Woodbourne for a number of years in the instrument maintenance field, as well as for employers in similar fields of work in Dunedin.
Lost Medals
Peter believes his medals were most likely lost during the movement of his personal effects in 1999 to or from a storage unit in Lawrence, Otago. At the time he registered his missing medals with MRNZ in 2016, Peter was fairly pessimistic about ever finding them again as it had been over 16 years at that point since he had last seen them. It is now closer to 22 years since they have been seen – until now; wasn’t he going to be surprised!
A sharp eyed follower of the MRNZ website with a good memory for the contents of our Medals~LOST+MISSING page, recently spotted the medals advertised for sale on Trade-Me and sent me the email.
Listing #: 2623651925
Dunedin, Otago, NZ
Closes: Wed 20 May, 2:51 pm
Buy Now – $445
RNZAF and RAF GSM and LSGC medals (ORIGINAL)
bars SOUTH ARABIA and RADFAN ~ circa 1963
86856 CPL. P.L. WEATHERILL. RNZAF
3529174 SAC. P.L WEATHERILL. RAF
both 0.925 silver, widths: 36mm, miniature is plated.
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I opened the email from “John O’R.” a person not known to me. There was no message inside, just a Trade-Me URL. I opened the URL to find Peter’s medals being offered for sale by Otago Coin, a Mosgiel specialist coin trader.
Medals reunited …
At the time I posted Peter’s medals missing, his email contact was recorded but for whatever reason, not his telephone contact. As a consequence, as much as I wanted to, I could not call him immediately to tell him the good news and how to stop any late night sale of the medals. With the ever-present threat of another collector or trader sighting and buying the medals (yes, often in the wee small hours), I quickly dashed of an email to Peter telling him of the find and to contact ”Johnny” at Otago Coin, explain the situation and to ask Johnny if he would withdraw the medals from sale. I also sent an email to Johnny requesting the same until I had made contact with Peter. Ironically Peter lives in Dunedin, just a few kilometres from Otago Coin in Mosgiel. With no guarantee either Peter or Johnny would see my email before another buyer purchased the medals, and not wishing to phone at that hour of the morning, I decided to pre-emptively ‘buy’ the medals for the $445 BUY NOW price to secure them on Peter’s behalf. I took a punt that he would be prepared to reimburse me to have his medals returned; the worst case scenario was that I would finish up with a couple of medals I would probably have gifted to Peter anyway. I purchased the medals at the BUY NOW price and hoped for the best when I checked my emails the following day.
By next morning Johnny had already responded to my request and said Peter had made contact with him – great, Peter must have got my email. Johnny Lindsay is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable numismatic professionals in NZ. I called and he said that when Peter contacted him, he had explained the background to the loss of his medals. The outcome was that Johnny offered the medals back to Peter gratis! Johnny was prepared to forego whatever he had paid for the medals plus any margin he would have made when they were on-sold, to do the honourable thing by Peter and return his medals to him at no cost. Brilliant outcome!
Johnny and Peter had arranged to meet the following weekend for the handover. I phoned Peter who had been dumbfounded when he got my email. Never expecting to ever see his medals again, after an absence of nearly 22 years he was simply amazed they had turned up. Peter is once again in possession of his long lost medals. Whilst researching this post and having noted Peter had left the RNZAF in 1987, there was a medal he was entitled to but may not have claimed, or even been aware of. The NZ Defence Service Medal (DSM) introduced in 2011, was instituted to acknowledge a minimum of four years full-time or accumulated military service in the New Zealand Defence Force. Accordingly, Peter qualified retrospectively for this medal with the Clasp: REGULAR. Peter had not claimed the medal so I was delighted to be able to send him an application for his.
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An honourable gesture by Johnny Lindsay of Otago Coin, my sincere thanks and ‘big ups’ to him – Johnny clearly respects the sacrifice and service of New Zealand’s military veterans. Special thanks also go to “John O’R.” without whose spotting the medals in the first place and promptly advising me, Peter’s medals may have slipped under the radar and resulted in their disappearance for another quarter of a century … or more.
The reunited medal tally is now 330.