For this he received the Victoria Cross which is awarded for the ''most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy''.
Ray Simpson was born in 1926 at Chippendale, Sydney. He enlisted in March 1944 and served on Morotai, Tarakan, and Rabaul. Re-enlisting, he served in Korea and Malaya. In 1962 he was sent to Vietnam. During a second tour there in 1964, he was wounded and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Discharged, he re-enlisted for a final tour.
Simpson left the army in 1970; he was the longest-serving member of the AATTV. During his military career as well as the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Conduct Medal, he was awarded service medals for the Second World War, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam, the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
He died in Tokyo in 1978 , where he had settled with his Japanese wife.
[Source AWM ]