Peter Jeffrey, DSO, DFC (6 July 1913 – 6 April 1997) was a senior officer and fighter ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, he joined the RAAF active reserve in 1934, and transferred to the Permanent Air Force (PAF) shortly before World War II.

The next month he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his achievements, which included rescuing a fellow pilot who had crash landed in the desert.

[1] Having spent time as a jackaroo, by 1934 he was in his first year of engineering studies at Sydney University, residing in St Andrew's College.

[3][4] In January 1939, he was posted to Britain to attend the Specialists Signals Course at Royal Air Force College Cranwell, and was promoted to flight lieutenant in September.

[7][8] Along with most of his comrades, Jeffrey flew obsolescent Gloster Gladiator biplanes in support of the Australian 6th Division during the North African Campaign; he claimed no victories at this stage.

Following a flight of four German Junkers Ju 52 transports back to their base near Fort Capuzzo, Libya, he shot one down before it landed and strafed the other three on the ground, setting all on fire.

[2][13] He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for this exploit, as well as his "untiring efforts" and "high standard of efficiency ... under extremely trying conditions"; the award was promulgated in the London Gazette on 13 May.

Jeffrey scored the unit's first victory in the new fighter when he shot down in flames an Italian Junkers Ju 88 over the sea near Beirut on 13 June 1941.

[15][16] Jeffrey was credited with another Ju 88 before the squadron returned to North Africa in September to support the Allied counter-attack against the Afrika Korps.

On one occasion he arranged accommodation for his men near a beach, well away from the din of night-time bombing that was causing them to lose sleep on a regular basis.

3 Squadron's flight sergeants recalled that Jeffrey made it a rule for new pilots to get to know their ground crew to increase their sense of comradeship, and also gave one of his senior warrant officers special responsibility for keeping track of the location of Allied airfields and petrol supplies to ensure that the unit was never short of fuel or places to land in an emergency.

234 Wing RAF earlier in the month,[3] Jeffrey was credited with a share in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter on 20 November.

Nicknamed "Tiny", Cameron had the bulkiest frame of any man in the unit, and after landing Jeffrey had to ditch his parachute to make room for his passenger in the Tomahawk's cockpit.

Forming the squadron in Townsville, Queensland, Jeffrey was responsible for readying it for the defence of Port Moresby, which would become one of the crucial early battles in the New Guinea campaign.

3 Squadron in the Middle East, Flight Lieutenants "Old John" Jackson and Peter Turnbull, most of the unit's pilots were untried, and Jeffrey had only nine days to instil in them basic principles of combat flying, gunnery and tactics.

He handed over command to Jackson on 19 March, but assisted in ferrying the Kittyhawks to Moresby two days later, only to be fired upon by nervous anti-aircraft gunners as he came in to land with Turnbull and two other pilots.

[3][4] Initially based at Port Pirie, South Australia, the unit relocated to Mildura, Victoria, the following month, training pilots for combat in such aircraft as Kittyhawks, CAC Boomerangs and Supermarine Spitfires.

1 Wing intercepted some raiders in late September but none came in October; the last Japanese attack on northern Australia took place on 12 November.

[42] The next month, he deployed his headquarters and two squadrons to Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia to protect facilities that had been established to refuel the British Eastern Fleet before Operation Transom.

Jeffrey declared that the trip was a wasted effort and he had only undertaken it to prevent, in Caldwell's words, "the morale of his pilots going completely down the drain".

[44] The following month, Jeffrey was recommended to be mentioned in despatches for "gallant and distinguished service" in North-Western Area; the award was gazetted on 9 March 1945.

[3][4] Over the next two years he held training posts in Victoria, firstly at the RAAF Staff College, Point Cook, and in 1952 at Central Flying School, East Sale.

[4][50] Raised to acting group captain in February 1954, Jeffrey was appointed Superintendent, Air, with the Long-Range Weapons Establishment in Salisbury, South Australia.

[12][53] His obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 April described him as the "archetypal Australian combat leader ... fearless, forthright, unpretentious, caring".