Davina Smith
If you asked Stanley Walsh where he got his Distinguished Conduct Medal – our nation’s second-highest military honour behind the Victoria Cross – he would have told you he found it in a cornflakes box.
The story is far more spine-tingling than that.
Less luck. Much more pluck.
In his defence, perhaps Walsh was a little blasé about the much-lauded military prize because DCMs were nothing new in his household.
Stan’s father, Richard, was also a recipient of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, making them the only father-and-son pair in Australian history to both receive the honour.
Now, the descendants of the Walsh heroes are on a mission – to elevate Stan’s medal to a Victoria Cross while also trying to locate the original DCM awarded to Richard that went missing decades ago during the division of his estate.
Warrant Officer Stanley Walsh was a legendary Rat of Tobruk.
On the first of September 1942, the 24-year-old from Stanthorpe was stationed near Tel el Eisa, the critical railway ridge north-west of El Alamein in Egypt.
Under extreme shell fire, behind enemy lines, he spotted an Aussie runner from another company wounded, trapped and surely about to die.
With no regard for his own safety, Walsh ran to him, dressed his wounds and carried him half a kilometre to safety as rockets and machine guns rumbled around them, skirting their flesh.
Decades later, Walsh would be walking down Queen Street Mall in Brisbane when a stranger broke down in front of him.
It was the man he saved.
“I was gobsmacked this guy had just got a DCM,” said military historian John Telfer who helped submit a formal request for Stan Walsh’s Victoria Cross upgrade.
“He epitomised the typical Anzac … it was all there – courage, perseverance, resourcefulness, most of all, mateship,” Telfer said.
Humble humility also seems to go hand-in-hand with heroes – and that was certainly the case for Walsh.
Years after the war, he would go on to serve as mayor of Warwick in south-east Queensland.
But even those who knew him best in that role, knew very few details about his past life and courage.
Stan’s son, John Walsh, remembered how his father’s medals, including the DCM, would roll around loose in a tin at home.
“He used to pin them [his medals] on for Anzac Day occasionally with a safety pin,” John recalled to A Current Affair.
“I got them all put on a bar … he was mayor then, so I guess he had to have them straightened up instead of all over the place,” John said.
John also sorted through many of his father’s photos from the war – a treasure trove of black-and-white images that would rival any collection inside the Australian War Memorial.
The photos were taken on camera thought to originally belong to a German solider, with some of the old film capturing pictures of enemy weapons and training camps.
“Somebody in the RSL used to always talk about the war and he would say the war finished 70 years ago, and he left it at that, he never talked about what he’d done,” John said.
“Dad was never one for medals. He was never one for the show. He was a person who worked.”
Together with Telfer, Stan’s granddaughters Alana Hurse and Larissa Mack have put together a formal application to Defence and the Australian government for Walsh, who died in 1998, to be considered for the Victoria Cross.
“I think that’s the ultimate thing isn’t it? Knowing that you possibly would not come back from what you’re doing,” Larissa reflected.
“We don’t mind if it’s rejected and he’s not awarded [the VC] because I think in our hearts we know he’s worthy, and we know what acts of bravery he did,” added Alana.
Stan’s father, Richard Walsh, received his Distinguished Conduct Medal during his service in the Boer War.
“As far as we’re aware, they’re the only father and son in Australian history to both be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal,” Larissa said.
“Yeah DNA comes into play, but it’s also how you’re raised … that dedication to help,” Alana said.
The original missing DCM would have Richard’s name engraved along the edge, and may still be attached to the iconic dark crimson and navy-blue ribbon.
Anyone with information about the location of the medal is asked to contact A Current Affair.
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