'I'd give anything to have him back without any medals': Honour at last

But there was one stealthy foe that not even a hero pilot like Peter could avoid.

More than three decades after the RAAF top gun flew through the toxic radioactive clouds of the 1950s British atomic tests, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Just three months later, on July 14, 1988, he died, aged 66, with his wife Helen by his side.

It's taken another 36 years for his Warrnambool widow to finally receive acknowledgement of her husband's role in the contentious nuclear test program.

This week a newly-minted medallion arrived in her letter box, courtesy of the British Ministry of Defence.

The Nuclear Test Medal is the 20th medal awarded to the air commodore who is regarded as one of the RAAF's most highly decorated World War II and post-war pilots. His list of accolades includes a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the Cross of Valour (Poland) and the Air Force Cross.

The latest medal was announced in November 2022 by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, 70 years after the first British test of a nuclear weapon and recognises military, civilian and overseas staff and personnel who took part in the testing program in the 1950s and '60s.

After an earlier application for the medal by Mrs Raw was rejected in May 2023 on the grounds her husband had died outside the medal qualifying time, she took her case to Australia's Atomic Ex-Servicemen's Association and Wannon MP Dan Tehan.

Mrs Raw, 94, said she was very pleased to receive the medal on her husband's behalf, describing it as "a great honour, even though it's taken 68 years". It is his fourth posthumous medal.

"I'm very proud of his achievements. But I'd give anything to have him back without any medals," she said.

"He wasn't a showy person but he'd probably say, well, at last they've done something."

Britain conducted 12 major atomic tests and about 200 smaller tests in Australia between 1952 and 1963 at the Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia and Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia.

Melbourne-born Peter Frank Raw had already distinguished himself in combat in a heavy bomber unit in Europe during the closing stages of World War II. In 1953 he captained an Australian-built Canberra bomber to second place in the England-to-New Zealand air race, for which he was awarded the Air Force Cross.

A promotion to wing commander in 1956 preceded his appointment to RAAF liaison officer at the British atomic tests. With the British RAF task force that October, he flew into and tracked atomic mushroom clouds taking air samples and photos in the operations codenamed Mosaic and Buffalo.

Mrs Raw tells of raising concerns with her then husband-to-be about the health risks of the tests.

"He said he didn't believe the government would allow them to fly through atomic clouds if they didn't think it was safe," she recalled.

The flights involved collecting nuclear particles in cannisters mounted on the outside of the planes for analysis.

Her husband had also spoken of orders being given by scientists to remove the thyroid glands of sheep that had died in the fallout area for testing.

Official radioactivity monitoring stations later revealed that fallout from the explosions, in particular the last Maralinga bomb in October 1957, had been detected as far away as Townsville and regional Victoria, including Warrnambool, Hamilton, Sale, Swan Hill and Mildura.

A link between increased infant mortality rates and nuclear rain in those towns was also reported in 1959.

Responding to a legal request for information for a submission to the 1985 Royal Commission into the British Nuclear Tests in Australia, the then retired Mr Raw wrote that he was "subjected to post-flight radiation checks, both personal and clothing following the cloud tracking mission on the morning of 22 October, '56".

"So far as I can recall these tests were negative in result, though the aircraft exterior was exhibiting marked responses to radiation testing and it was, as I recall, impounded for a period before its return to unrestricted service," he said.

With Australia's entry into the Vietnam War, Peter Raw was appointed support commander to co-ordinate helicopter operations for Australia's two army battalions and was also in command of the RAAF contingent based at Vung Tau and deputy commander of all RAAF forces in Vietnam.

In 1973 he was promoted to air commodore before his appointment to commanding officer of the RAAF base at Butterworth in Malaysia where the Raw family spent several years.

Mrs Raw said 10 years after her husband's retirement to Melbourne in 1978, he consulted a doctor after he started experiencing a stiff neck.

Otherwise fit and healthy, he was referred to the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital where X-rays revealed the grim prognosis.

"The doctor questioned him about anything unusual in his background. When Peter told him he'd flown through the atomic clouds, the doctor just put his face in his hands," Mrs Raw said.

"They said he had six months, but he only lived for three."