{"id":765030,"date":"2026-06-28T04:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765030\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:10:15","slug":"griffiths-private-michael-paice-and-the-war-medal-he-never-talked-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765030\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith’s Private Michael Paice and the war medal he never talked about"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February 1945, Private Michael Paice was in the jungle of Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands archipelago, with his fighting patrol on a mission to engage with the Japanese when they came under sudden fire.<\/p>\n

While being shot at, Private Paice attempted to retrieve the body of the patrol’s first scout, then helped his wounded commander back to safety while also taking down a nearby post of Japanese soldiers.<\/p>\n

For his bravery, the Griffith soldier was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal, one of the most distinguished medals bestowed upon British and Commonwealth forces at the time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michael Paice’s Distinguished Conduct Medal. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Second only to the Victoria Cross, it was awarded for distinguished and gallant conduct in the field.<\/p>\n

But when Private Paice returned to Australia, he never spoke about his time in the war or his medal.<\/p>\n

His daughter, Moreen Corner, has since conducted hours of research on her father’s time in the war.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Moreen Corner researched her father’s time in war as she got older. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“When we found out that this is probably the only Distinguished Conduct Medal in this area \u2014 it was a big deal,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t think much about it because he never made an issue of it in front of us, and as kids back then, you didn’t ask questions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Growing up, Moreen Corner (top right) and her siblings, Wilma (top left), (from left) Michael, Vicky and Judith did not know much about their dad’s time in the war. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“He was a quiet kind of person. If he spoke to Mum, we never heard about it, and she never told us anything after he passed away.”<\/p>\n

Recently, an exhibition featuring his replica medals and his story was unveiled at the Griffith War Museum.<\/p>\n

Ms Corner said it was emotional to see her father’s story being shared all these years later.<\/p>\n

“I was very proud; that day was very emotional,” she said.<\/p>\n

Griffith War Museum president Michael Borg said when Ms Corner approached him about her father’s medals, he was astounded to see the highly ranked military decoration among the collection.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michael Borg says a Distinguished Conduct Medal like Michael Paice’s is a big deal for the area. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“Michael was the only one in Griffith to get one,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A young bloke went to war at the age of 21 and came back a local hero, but no-one ever knew it.”<\/p>\n

Distinguished Conduct Medals came under the British imperial system and were discontinued in 1993.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Australia started its own honours system.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Replicas of Michael Paice’s medals and his story are now exhibited at the Griffith War Museum. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

“In our system now, it actually sits sort of at the same level as the Medal for Gallantry \u2014 so it’s pretty significant,” Mr Borg said.<\/p>\n

“From that conflict that he was in, there was one Military Cross, one Distinguished Conduct Medal, four Military Medals, and 12 Mentioned in Dispatches.<\/p>\n

“To receive that many awards for those heroisms that were displayed during that conflict is just phenomenal.”<\/p>\n

Not an uncommon tale<\/p>\n

Australian War Memorial curator Emily Hyles is well versed in interviewing veterans about their war experiences.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emily Hyles says it is not uncommon for veterans to shy away from talking about their achievements. (ABC News: James Vyver)<\/p>\n

She said there were some common reasons why many chose to stay quiet.<\/p>\n

“There’s the feeling that families or civilians who haven’t been in a war just can’t understand what it’s like with all the terrible sounds and sights and the trauma, and they find that very hard to explain,” Ms Hyles said.<\/p>\n

“Some of them feel that they were just doing their job and they were selected for a medal, but perhaps their friend wasn’t, and they felt that they weren’t any more deserving,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Some feel what we now call survivor’s guilt; they made it home, but some of their mates didn’t.”<\/p>\n

A few months ago, the war memorial unveiled its new Anzac Hall featuring stories of those who served in more recent conflicts.<\/p>\n

In putting those exhibitions together, Ms Hyles noticed a difference when it came to modern veterans talking about their experiences.<\/p>\n

“They’re really keen to share their experience because their stories haven’t been told in the war memorial before,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think not having the space [previously] to do it justice somehow made those modern veterans feel that their service was less important, which of course isn’t the case.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Moreen Corner is happy her father’s story is being shared with their home town. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n

Ms Corner said exhibitions helped families come to terms with the stories of their loved ones.<\/p>\n

“It gives us an understanding or a partial understanding of what he must have gone through to do what he did, because it was either shoot or be shot at.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In February 1945, Private Michael Paice was in the jungle of Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands archipelago, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,364650,141839,364654,85,36106,6900,364652,364651,364653,66046],"class_list":["post-765030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-distinguished-conduct-medal","tag-griffith","tag-michael-paice","tag-sports","tag-veterans","tag-war","tag-war-history","tag-war-medals","tag-war-stories","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}