WALSH, Stanley Richard DCM

WALSH, Stanley Richard – A Southern Downs Veteran

CONFLICT : WWII
SERVICE NO : QX835
RANK : Lieutenant
UNIT : 2/15th Australian Infantry Battalion
ENLISTMENT DATE : 17/05/1940
AGE : 22
PLACE OF ENLISTMENT : Kelvin Grove, Queensland
PLACE OF BIRTH : Stanthorpe, Queensland
RELIGION : Roman Catholic
OCCUPATION : Instructor in Agriculture
DATE OF DEATH : 1/05/1998
PLACE OF BURIAL : Warwick, Queensland

MEMORIALS : Southern Downs Rats of Tobruk Memorial

View Veteran’s Service File : WALSH, Stanley Richard

NOTES : WALSH, Stanley Richard (Stan) was the only child of Harriet and Richard Walter Walsh DCM who was a tin miner.

Stan grew up in Stanthorpe and attended Sugarloaf State School before furthering his education at the Queensland Agricultural High School and College. His father Richard Walter Walsh had fought in the Boer War and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery. Needless to say, Stan learned valuable lessons from his father with regard to respect, honour, work ethics and mateship as he grew up. Learning how to better work with the land and crops became a lifelong passion for Stan.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Stan enlisted in Kelvin Grove and was assigned to the 2/15th Battalion with the Service Number QX835 on May 17, 1940. He would spend from the beginning of July to the end of September 1940 in Darwin before shipping out to the Middle East where he became one of the famed Rats of Tobruk. The Battalion experienced heavy fighting and it was there where he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery.

Richard and Stan hold the distinction of being the only known, father son combination to both be awarded the DCM.

Stan was in attendance at the burial service of Captain William Hiles Jubb (QX6244) conducted at the El Alamein War Cemetery. Captain Jubb had worked as a bank officer in Stanthorpe prior to his enlistment. It would be over two years before Stan returned to Australia for home service.

It was during this time at home when he married Bernice Agnes McGearey at St Patricks Cathedral in Toowoomba. Bernice was a Nursing Sister at the 3rd Australian Camp Hospital at Enoggera. Both the bride and groom wore their uniforms.

With fighting in the Pacific heating up, Stan was deployed to Borneo from May 6 to October 9, 1945. Risking his life once more, Stan and his men worked side by side with the Dayak natives. One story he relayed to the family described the deep respect the natives had for him and how one of them would sleep at his head and one at his feet to protect him during the night while he slept.

At the conclusion of the war, Stan once again continued his work teaching and developing better agricultural practices in Queensland including a distinguished career with the DPI. In 1989 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Queensland Agricultural College for his services to the industry.

Bernice, Stan and their three sons lived in Warwick and it was here where he continued his civic duty when he was elected Mayor of Warwick in 1985 and was returned unopposed in 1988. A life well lived and an inspiration to us all.

Read about Southern Downs Military History here.