Reg Rattey (1918-1986) spent most of his life in the Wyalong district of New South Wales. He was in the local militia light horse troop when the war began, and in 1942 he volunteered for the Second AIF. After serving in a carrier company in New Guinea, he transferred to the 25th Battalion, another militia unit, and landed on Bougainville in late 1944.

During an advance, when held up by Japanese machine-gun posts, Rattey attacked them using grenades and firing his Bren gun from the hip. "His bravery was an incentive to the entire company."

In 1946 Rattey went to London with the Australian Victory Contingent and, while there, he was invested with his decoration by King George VI at Buckingham Palace. He later settled down at West Wyalong, where he died.