The dramatic story of a SAS hero from Swanage in Dorset, is to be published in a new book, the result of a decade of research and a daughter’s determination to preserve her father’s legacy.
SAS Rogue: The Clandestine Life of Peter Weaver by Joanna Weaver and Will Ward, has been posthumously compiled from his diaries and is due to be released on Saturday 9th May 2026.
Author Joanna Weaver proudly wears the medals her father earned during his wartime career in the SAS
Rare and deeply personal insight
The book offers a rare and deeply personal insight into the life of a man whose wartime exploits stretched from the secret bunkers of Dorset, deep behind enemy lines in France and ultimately to the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
It has been co authored by Will Ward, a consultant paediatrician and historian researcher for Dorset’s auxiliary units, who has spent the last ten years researching the locations and events written about in the diaries.
The new book, running to more than 100,000 words and featuring 30 previously unpublished photographs, aims to capture the full scope of Major Peter Weaver’s life, from daring wartime missions to the personal complexities behind the uniform.
And for Joanna Weaver, of Harman’s Cross, the publication marks the culmination of years of work to ensure her father’s story is properly told.
Major Peter Weaver, from the cover of the book, Rogue Hero
Churchill’s secret army
Joanna Weaver said:
“It has been an extraordinary journey. My father began writing his memoirs himself, chapter by chapter, and he wrote beautifully, but he sadly suffered a stroke before he could finish, so this book completes what he started.
“My father wrote his memoirs while we were living on the Parade in Swanage, but I never read them at the time. He was very proud of having written so many words – I wish I had encouraged him more, but I simply wasn’t that interested then, and I ended up putting his memoirs aside.
“But 10 years ago, Will Ward contacted me because my father had been in charge of the auxiliary unit for Dorset – it was known as Churchill’s Secret Army, building underground bunkers which would have been the base of a guerrilla resistance if Germany invaded.
“I went to the unveiling of a memorial to the Langton Matravers Auxiliary Unit and afterwards walked into the village hall and saw billboards about my father.
“It made me realise just how important his role had been and how much of it people didn’t know. That’s when I asked Will to help write my father’s story with essential historic research, which he has done brilliantly.”
Peter Weaver (middle row, centre) with members of the East Dorset Scout Section of Churchill’s Secret Army
Seeking men skilled in sabotage
Her father, Major Peter Weaver, was Dorset’s intelligence officer for the secret resistance force and trained Home Guard patrols in sabotage and covert operations, using his deep knowledge of the Purbeck landscape to help select hidden bunker locations.
As a teenager, he had explored the Purbeck hills endlessly every school holiday on his bike, and knew the terrain, the caves and the beaches better than anyone.
It was this experience that brought him to the attention of SAS commander Paddy Mayne, who was seeking men skilled in sabotage and covert warfare who were prepared to risk their lives on a daily basis to cause maximum damage to the German forces.
In one now famous recruitment meeting at London’s Curzon Cinema, volunteers were told bluntly that the missions ahead would be extremely dangerous, with little chance of survival. The lights were even turned off to allow anyone unwilling to continue to slip away unnoticed.
Major Peter Weaver, pictured second from right, with other members of 1st SAS, B Squadron
“The men were betrayed”
Joanna Weaver said:
“Almost all of them stayed, which says everything about that generation. They were exactly what Paddy Mayne needed, men who could operate behind the lines, who weren’t afraid, who had already been trained in explosives. My father always said the SAS were the finest regiment in the world.
“After rigorous training, he was parachuted into occupied France to disrupt German supply lines ahead of the D-Day landings, his unit carried out sabotage missions targeting railways and fuel depots, operating under constant threat of discovery.
“They were dropped miles behind enemy lines. The danger was enormous, even getting there – if your parachute didn’t open, that was it, there was no backup. My father never liked jumping, he said it wasn’t natural!
“Eventually, he joined other men from the SAS in Bulbasket wood, near Rom in western France, where they were pillaging from local farms whilst waiting for their orders to come through for the next operation.
“But the men were betrayed, and 36 SAS were captured and executed under direct orders from Hitler. My father was among the few who managed to escape, scrambling through a cornfield on his stomach, being shot at all the time, and hiding in a thicket of brambles.”
After betrayal at Bulbasket, the SAS survivors went straight back to work, here clearing a landing strip on French farm land for RAF planes to land
Life after war was far from simple
After surviving Operation Bulbasket in summer 1944, Major Weaver then regrouped with the remainder of B Squadron, 1 SAS, and continued sabotage operations in the Poitiers area for about a month, including a successful napalm attack on German barracks.
He then took part in further SAS operations, advancing into Germany and helping to liberate the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in mid April 1945.
Following VE Day in May 1945, he landed in Norway with the SAS to disarm the German garrison, and later was involved in a little known SAS deployment in Crete, carrying out secret operations on the island and helping to make reparations for war damage.
After the war, his military career continued across Europe and Africa, serving in Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt and Greece. Eventually, he returned to Dorset, fulfilling a long held dream of settling in the area he had loved since childhood.
Yet life after the war was far from simple and Joanna remembers her father as a complex man shaped by both his experiences and his upbringing.
Peter Weaver’s beloved trimaran Salu, with family and friends aboard including daughter Joanna (left)
“Obsessed with excellence and sport”
Joanna Weaver said:
“He had a very strict childhood himself, losing his father at a young age, and I think that stayed with him. He loved sport, he loved the sea, and he lived life to the full.
“He was obsessed with excellence and sport, he wanted me to be sporty. He wanted boys, essentially, and had four daughters, which was terrible for him.
“His dream was always to go back to Purbeck to his childhood memories, but I was 16 when we made that move and it was a terrible upheaval for me.
“When we first moved down here, he was adamant he would have a house overlooking the sea and the only house that was available was the Belmont Hotel in Swanage, on the Parade, so they bought it and converted it.”
After the war, Peter Weaver kept chickens, played golf and cricket, and sailed
“It was a different world”
Joanna added:
“He eventually agreed to move to the cottage in Harman’s Cross where my mother had the wonderful garden she loved and where I still live.
“It wasn’t easy being the daughter of an SAS officer. He suffered a lot being brought up without a father figure in his life, he had a strict upbringing and probably thought that was the way he should bring me up.
“But I still had a happy childhood – I had my bicycle, my dens, a pony, my father made me hideouts like they had in the war, he made me run round the pond and timed me, he would have loved me to be a cross country runner. I was in the Olympics and probably did that to impress my father.”
“So the new book is about making sure that my father’s story is not forgotten. This isn’t polished history, it’s his truth, in his own words, supported by everything Will has uncovered. I just wanted people to understand what they went through, what they did for this country.”
Peter Weaver and his team were sent to Crete to help distribute reparations for the damage they suffered during World War Two
Endorsement by Damien Lewis
SAS Rogue: The Clandestine Life of Peter Weaver will be published by Casemate and includes an endorsement by bestselling military historian Damien Lewis, whose SAS titles have a strong following.
It will be available at local booksellers as well as national chains including Waterstones and Foyles, and will also be available as an audiobook from June 2026.
The book will have an official launch at Waterstones in Dorchester on Saturday 20th June 2026 alongside World War Two tanks during the town’s annual Armour and Embarkation event.
Further information
- More about the life of Peter Weaver on the British Resistance Archive
