WARRANT OFFICER CLASS 1 R. BANDY, MBE

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Reg Bandy

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Reg Bandy was born in Subiaco, Perth Western Australia on 14 July 1922. He joined the Army in 1940. He trained with 11,000 other men in 1941 and was subsequently posted to an armoured reconnaissance unit on the Australian mainland. In 1943, all units were converted to infantry to oppose the Japanese in New Guinea and he was posted to a US Army landing unit in Finschhafen, New Guinea. By 1943, he was posted to an Australian landing craft unit and served up and down the New Guinea coast servicing other Army units for the remainder of the war. 

It was in this period that he encountered a captured Japanese officer who was to provide an echo of his war years later. The officer, guessing that Reg would be sent to Japan within the occupation forces, asked him to deliver a letter to his mother in Tokyo. Asked what favour he could do him in return, Reg was given a map, which showed where all the money held by the local Japanese forces was hidden. He retrieved it and it was useful when Reg and his comrades reached Tokyo. He kept his part of the bargain. He found the officer's mother, who was overjoyed to be told that her son had survived the war.

After the Second World War ended, he was posted to Moratai with the 67th Battalion which then was re-titled the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR). The Battalion trained for British and Commonwealth Occupation Forces duties in Japan where subsequently he patrolled and helped clean up Hiroshima after the Atom bomb.

By February 1950, he was at war again with 3 RAR who had joined the United Nations Force attached to the British 27th Brigade alongside the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Middlesex Regiment.

In 3 RAR’s first six months in Korea the battalion fought seven battles, lost 100 killed in action and 50 wounded. Reg Bandy was acting as platoon commander at the Battle of Kapyong and in his own words described it as “Not a nice place to be”.

In 1951 his tour of duty finished, he went back to Japan and then later, in December, to Australia where he was posted to 6 Recruit Training Company, training reinforcements for Korea.

From 1953 to 1959, Reg Bandy trained National Servicemen and Citizen Military Force (CMF) Officers and non-commissioned officers and then in 1960 was posted to Battle Wing, Jungle Training Centre as an instructor. In 1963, he was posted to South Vietnam with the Australian Army Training Team where he worked with the South Vietnamese Rangers. He is one of the very few Australians who were awarded the General Service Medal with Vietnam Clasp, the predecessor to the Australian Vietnam Medal

On returning to Australia, Warrant Officer Bandy served as a Senior Instructor at the Infantry Centre and was then promoted and posted as the Regimental Sergeant Major, 11th Battalion, CMF in Western Australia. In 1968, he was posted as the Regimental Sergeant Major of 7 RAR and went with the Battalion back to South Vietnam in 1970 for both his and the battalion’s second tour. At the end of this tour of duty, he was awarded Membership of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

After returning to Australia, Warrant Officer Bandy was posted as the Regimental Sergeant Major, Infantry Centre and then from 1972 to 1975 was the Regimental Sergeant Major of Australia House, London. On returning to Australia, he was posted as the Regimental Sergeant Major, Western Command and his last task was to train the Royal Guard of Honour for the departure of HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip from Perth Airport.

Warrant Officer Bandy retired from the Army in July 1977 having completed 37 years’ service. He saw active service in three wars over multiple duty tours and beside the MBE was also awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and Conspicuous Service and Good Conduct Medal. He was also awarded five foreign awards and three citations giving him a grand total of 25 medals, citations and awards.

Warrant Officer Bandy died on the 6th May at 2017 at the age of 95.

The biographical information on Major General R.A. Grey, AO, DSO and Warrant Officer Class 1 R. Bandy, MBE, was researched and written by Maj Gen (Retd) Mike O’Brien, CSC.

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