From Court Martial to VC . . . 

QX20656  

Private Richard KELLIHER, VC

2/25th Australian Infantry Battalion, 

AIF.

13th September 1943, 

near Nadzab, New Guinea.

© Harry Willey. 2002.       harrywilley@hunterlink.net.au

The 11 Platoon of B Company found themselves pinned down by very heavy machine gun fire during an attack on a Japanese position at Nadzab. With five of their number killed and three wounded including their leader QX26271 Cpl William Henry Richards who was further advanced than the main party. He now lay weakened by severe loss of blood suffering multiple wounds, sheltered only by a tree stump shouting instructions to his men.

Suddenly Kelliher was on his feet dashing the 70 yards down the hill toward the enemy position into which he threw his two grenades. Realizing he had not killed all the occupants of the post he withdrew back to his position through heavy enemy fire, took a Bren gun and once again charged through the clearing that separated him from the enemy position, firing from the hip he succeeded in silencing the enemy stronghold.

Without hesitation while under heavy rifle fire from another Japanese position he went forward and half dragged half carried Richards who had been wounded in the arm, back and stomach back to safety. He then assisted in the rescue of the two other wounded men.

Kelliher’s action was responsible not only in the saving of Richards’ life, it allowing the platoon to achieve its objective. One Japanese officer and eight other ranks were found dead following the battle. Snipers from 11 platoon had accounted for four of these.On the evidence of privates QX19901 L. J. Brown, QX31593 J. A. Cameron and QX26282 J Mc Galey Kelliher was recommended for the Victoria Cross by his patrol leader Lieutenant Burns.

A few days later suffering from malaria Kelliher was withdrawn from the front and rejoined his unit after being in hospital for several weeks. Within a week of rejoining his unit he was again hospitalised suffering from malaria and it was here on 30 December 1943 while lying in a Australian General Hospital in New Guinea that his unit officers told him his award had been gazetted he said.

"I had just wanted to bring Billy [Richards] back, because he was my cobber, so I jumped out from the stub where I was sheltering, threw a few grenades over into the position where the Japanese were dug in. I did not kill them all, so I went back, got a Bren gun, and emptied the magazine into the post. That settled the Japanese. ‘I didn’t think of doing it to get a medal. I just wanted to bring Billy back, and what I did was the only way to do it".

Born at Ballybrenaugh, Ireland 1 September 1910, Richard Kelliher VC., was the sixth son and second youngest child of Michael a cattle dealer, and Mary Anne (nee Talbot) Kelliher, of Ballybeggan, Tralee, County Kerry.

As a small boy loved to roam the hills of County Kerry often riding his donkey on day long treks.
On completion of his schooling at the Jeffaries Institute, Tralee, he trained as a motor mechanic at the Technical College in Tralee. He was working for his eldest brother Timothy, the proprietor of Central Motor Works, Denny Street, Tralee in 1929, when as a seventeen-year-old he migrated with his 15-year-old sister Norah to Australia.

Here Richard and Norah lived with their mother’s brother Mr William Talbot at New Farm, an inner Brisbane suburb, their mother’s sister Mrs E. Porter (nee Talbot) lived close by at Bowen Hills. While working for his Uncle as a private detective, Richard became a sacristan at St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane, less than a year after his arrival in Brisbane the worldwide depression hit Australia. During the depression he was forced like many others to carry his swag around Queensland, finding work where he could. Picking bananas, cutting cane, painting house’s and share farming were some of the jobs Richard found. 

His health deteriorating when he contracted first typhoid and then meningitis. He lost contact in 1936 with his sister Norah who had married William Latter and moved to Sydney, they did not meet again until 1945.Despite the hard times he encountered during the depression he had always managed to set aside some money to assist his by then widowed mother in Ireland.
Richard was 30 years of age, single and working as a labourer in Brisbane, when he enlisted in the Australian Infantry Forces on 21 February 1941.

During his four and a half years in the Army, when he spent eight months in the Middle East and ten months in Papua and New Guinea. He was plagued with ill health first hospitalised less than five months after his enlistment.

Following four months initial training with the 2nd Infantry Training Battalion, he sailed from Sydney with reinforcements for the 2/12th Battalion, stationed in Palestine and Tripoli. After a further 10 weeks training with the 18th Infantry Training Battalion in Palestine, he was posted to the 2/25th Battalion.

When Japan started the war in the Pacific, his Battalion was recalled to Singapore, before they arrived Singapore fell. The Battalion was then redirected to Java, the serious situation in Java resulted in the Battalion again being diverted this time to Colombo before returning to Australia where they arrived on 10 March 1942 for Jungle Warfare training.

Following this Kelliher embarked from Brisbane on the 31 August 1942 with his unit, arriving in Port Moresby on September 9.

On 12 November 1942 whilst his section was in a forward position, temporarily held up under enemy fire, Kelliher moved back to Coy HQ saying he had been sent back by his Platoon Commander with information. Sadly the Platoon Commander was killed before he could confirm or deny Kelliher’s claim.Kelliher was subsequently charged ‘with failing to get into his allotted position with his section’. Despite Kelliher’s vigorous defence of his action’s and the admission by the accusing officer, Brig Roy King, acting GOC 6th Division, CO 2/5th Battalion on the Kokoda Trail, that he did not personally know Kelliher. Kelliher was returned to Ravenshoe, Queensland, on 19 January 1943.On March 27 1943 at a District Court Martial held at Ravenshoe, Kelliher was found guilty of misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice, and sentenced to 12 months detention.

Both the finding and the sentence was quashed on 31 May 1943, by the Adjt General, Kelliher again spent time in hospital with Malaria before rejoining the 2/25th which had returned to Queensland to reorganize.

With his unit he sailed from Townsville for Port Moresby on 17 August 1943 arriving three days later, they were then airlifted to Nadzab in the Markham Valley from where they immediately advanced on Lae. Serious opposition was first encountered on September 10 at Jensen’s plantation. Here on the 11th a strong Japanese force of 200 marines held up the Australians before with artillery support they were able to advance through to Whittaker’s plantation. Two days later the Australians again encountered strong resistance from Japanese marines who while stubbornly defending their position had two platoons of the Australians pinned down. It was on this day that the fore mentioned action took place.Kelliher’s health continued to deteriorate, he was back in hospital two weeks after the action that was to see him recommended for the Commonwealth’s highest award, the Victoria Cross. It was the thirteenth Victoria Cross awarded to an Australian serviceman during World War 11. Corporal Billy Richards was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in this same action.

Kelliher was once again a patient in a Australian General Hospital, Port Moresby, when his Victoria Cross was gazetted on 30 December 1943. Listed as dangerously ill suffering cerebral pneumonia. On the 11 January 1944 he received congratulations from the Minister for the Army, the Honourable Francis Michael Forde MP.

While Army Minister Forde wrote to Mrs. Kelliher in Ireland telling her of her son’s award. A very proud Prime Minister John Curtin, himself the son of a Irish immigrant, sent a cablegram to Mrs. Kelliher, the first long distance cablegram to arrive at Ballybeggan. This was front page news in the British newspapers available in Ireland but remained unreported in Irish newspapers as the Irish newspaper censor Mike Knightly had previously banned any mention of the deeds of Irishmen serving with the American or British services.

In February 1944, The Argus carried a comic strip depicting Kelliher’s achievement, while Kelliher was granted twelve months convalescent leave due to his deteriorating health, although confined to hospital for most of this time he managed to be with the 2/25th a Queensland Battalion, when they paraded through the streets of Brisbane on August 8 1944.While convalescing Kelliher was invited to Admiralty House, Sydney. to be invested with his Victoria Cross by Lord Gowrie, (later the Earl of Gowrie) the Governor General of Australia, who himself had been awarded a VC in 1899 in the Sudan. Kelliher declined the invitation, believing it was his right as a VC to have his medal personally presented to him by King George VI.

On returning to duty, Kelliher was reclassified medically as B1, restricted from humid climates, long marching and any positions of responsibility, which might cause mental strain he was then allotted to 11 Australian Advance Workshops.

His application for 10 days compassionate leave from the 13 to the 23 April 1945 to spend time with his sister Norah who was to be in Brisbane at that time. Resulted in leave being granted but for only four days as he was required to give a 10-minute talk on the ABC radio in support of the Third Victory Loan.

Kelliher was discharged on the 20 August 1945 at which time he was classified as 10% disabled suffering from post-malarial debility and only fit for light work. He was grated a pension of 5/- (50c) a week.

After many weeks of seeking employment he finally gained a position as a cleaner at Brisbane City Hall earning 4 pounds 17 shillings ($9.70) a week. In January 1946 while still employed at City Hall, he failed in an attempt to gain a taxi license. Shortly after this he was requested by the Army to report for a medical examination, as he had been selected to be a member of the Australian Victory Contingent.

Although Kelliher had no intention of returning to his homeland to live, he seized this opportunity to see his family and visit Ireland, he rejoined the Army on the 28 March as a member of this A.V.C.
The A.V.C, was made up of 250 men & women who between them were the holders of 162 Bravery Awards, they were to represent Australia when the ‘Fighting Men and Women of The Empire’, marched in the Victory Parade through the streets of London on 8 June 1946.The departure of the A.V.C. was delayed in Melbourne when the three VCs, Kelliher, Partridge and Rattey, who were members of the contingent, along with many others, refused to board the ship until VX58273 Sgt Albert Curtin MM was onboard. Curtin a former Medical Attendant, awarded his Military Medal at Tarakan was informed at the last minute he was to remain in Australia, as his rifle drill was not up to standard.

A compromise was agreed upon that allowed Curtin to make the trip as a medical attendant to look after the men who were subject to Malaria. Curtin then spent much of his time on the voyage to England practicing his rifle drill, and subsequently took part in the Parade.
When HMAS Shropshire berthed at Portsmouth on May 30, the Australian’s camped in Kensington Park near the Albert Memorial in small circular seven man tents. The King, Queen and Royal Princesses visited the Australian Contingent, with the King seeking out and speaking to the three VCs., Kelliher, Rattey and Partridge. Winston Churchill also met the Australians.

The setting up of this camp upset many Londoner’s who complained bitterly to ‘The Times’ one reader wrote the following, ‘To imprison for three lovely summer months one of London’s most loved playgrounds, is hardly a worthy way of celebrating our victory.’ On the Saturday prior to the parade the Australian Contingent led by a band of Welsh Guards marched to Australia House in the Strand, where Mr J. A. Beasley, Australia’s resident Minister in London held a reception and luncheon for them.The Victory Parade, which took two hours to pass the saluting base, was made up of Representatives from all the Allied countries with the exception of USSR, Poland and Yugoslavia.

Following the Parade, members of the A.V.C. were given 19 days leave, during this time Richard Kelliher and fellow Contingent member Pte Albert McNally visited Ballybeggan, staying with Richards mother and brother Tim for the duration of their leave.

When the rest of the Contingent sailed on June 30 for Australia on HMAS Shropshire, Richard Kelliher and Reg Rattey remained in London, where on July 9 1946, King George V1., invested them with their Victoria Cross’s. Richard Kelliher’s guests at the investment were his sister Mrs Patricia Murphy and his niece Margaret (Peggy) Murphy who had received travel warrants for both their train and boat travel from the Australian Army. Richard Kelliher VC., and Reg Rattey VC., then left England on 25 July 1946 onboard the ‘Dominion Monarch’. Where Kelliher’s poor health saw him admitted to the ship’s hospital for nine days, during the voyage.

The ‘Dominion Monarch’ also carried 246 English war brides and their children to their new homeland. It arrived in Melbourne on 22 August 1946 the same day as the HMAS Shropshire, which brought the other members of the A.V.C. home. Three years later on 30 August 1949 in Brisbane, Richard Kelliher VC., married nineteen year old Olive Margaret Hearn before moving to Melbourne.

Kelliher again visited England in 1953 as a member of the Australian and New Zealand Coronation Contingent. on board the Aircraft Carrier HMAS Sydney, leaving Sydney on March 21st, travelling by way of the Suez Canal arriving in Plymouth on May 5, where on June 2, they took part in the Coronation Procession.

The Sun a Sydney Newspaper on the 7 January 1955, published an article on nine of Australia’s surviving VC’s., this story revealed that Kelliher was still having a hard time. "He is a sick man and has gone from one poor job to another. He had been employed as a cleaner at the Brisbane Town Hall, before moving to Victoria, where he had worked a concrete machine for the Camberwell Council, before he was employed in 1951 by the Albert Park Grounds Committee".

"During 1954 Kelliher had spent three months in the Repatriation General Hospital (R.G.H) Heidelberg, where he was to return in March 1955 for further surgery". At the time the article was written he was a T.T.I. [Totally and Temporarily Incapacitated] living in a Housing Commission House in Burwood, Victoria, with his wife and two children.His only income was his pension, which was barely enough to keep his family. At 44 years of age Kelliher was reported to be frail and bent, but proud that he had what was undeniably the best kept garden in the street.

The following year Kelliher sailed on the SS Orcades along with other Australian VC’s who were part of the 301 Victoria Cross recipients from across the Commonwealth who attended the Victoria Cross Centenary Celebrations in London.Richard Kelliher VC., died on 28th January 1963, in the RGH, Heidelberg. 12 days after he suffered a stroke. He was buried with full Military Honours, at Springvale Cemetery.

World War 1 veterans Laurie McCarthy V C., and William Ruthven V C., with sixty mourners including a number of his former comrades of the 2/25th attended the burial. A large crowd had earlier attended a Requiem Mass at St Benedict’s Church, BurwoodAt the time of his death he was a TPI [Totally and Permanently Incapacitated] living at Roslyn Street, Burwood. With his wife Olive, a nine year old son Richard and two daughters Kerry (11) and Mary-Ellen (7).

Olive Kelliher remarried in 1965, now Mrs Olive Rawkins in an effort to raise money to pay for her son Richard jnr’s education she put her late husbands medals up for auction in London October 65. The auctioneer Sotheby’s first offered the Medals to the Australian War Memorial for 1,000 pound ($2,000), the director of the memorial refused the offer believing it would encourage VC winners or their families to sell their medals.

News of this controversy failed to reach the Kelliher family in Ireland, they remained oblivious to the fate of Richards medals until I contacted them forty five years later, while researching this story. Richard Kelliher's niece Margaret (Peggy) Murphy who was a guest of the Australian Army at Buckingham Palace, when Richard was invested with his VC, believes had they have known they would have done everything possible to keep the Medals in the Families keeping. Even if it meant paying Mrs Rawkins the $2,000 she was seeking.

The medals were withdrawn from the auction following strong protests from former members of the 2/25th. With an appeal being launched by Bruce Ruxton, the then secretary of the 2/25th Battalion Association which raised the $2,000 to purchase the medals which were then donated to the Australian War Memorial on 13 September 1966, the 23rd anniversary of the Battle in which Kelliher earned them.
In 1973 ex Corporal W. H. Richards and fifty other ex members of the 2/25th which had suffered twenty six casualties on September 13 1943, met in Canberra where they remembered with pride a hero who on that day saved the lives of many.

Kelliher’s Medals are The Victoria Cross, 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45. In 1953 he received the Queen Elizabeth 11 Coronation Medal.The War Memorial in Canberra has a portrait of Pte Richard Kelliher VC,. by George Browning.

Richard Kelliher Jnr now 48 years of age proudly marched for the first time in the 2002 ANZAC Day March in Melbourne with the 2/25th Battalion Association.

^{© Harry Willey. 2002. harrywilley@hunterlink.net.au}

^{ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS}

• ^{My thanks to:} 

  • ^{The Military Historical Society of Australia.} 

  • ^{Dr Richard E Reid, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.} 

  • ^{The National Archives of Australia.} 

  • ^{Ms Virginia Seddon.} 

  • ^{Ex Corporal Reg M Fletcher MM, and the} 

  • ^{Family of the late Reg R. Rattey VC.,}

  • ^{Dr Christopher Noon,} 

  • ^{Margaret (Peggy) Murphy &} 

  • ^{Neil Hutton (Ireland),} 

^{for their assistance in researching and writing this story.}

Richard Kelliher Jnr proudly marched in the 2002 ANZAC Day march in Melbourne, Australia with the 2/25th Battalion Association

Displayed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is a portrait of Pte Richard Kelliher VC,. by George Browning.

The Australian Victory Contingent, Kensington Park near the Albert Memorial. 

Photo courtesy of NX110368 Ex Corporal Reg Fletcher MM, of the 2/12th.

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