Martin 'Jock' Wallace MG, born in 1969 of Scottish ancestry, grew up in Tamworth, New South Wales, and enlisted in the Australian Army in 1987 at the age of seventeen. He was a member of 152 Signals Squadron and served as a signalman with the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) when he was awarded the Medal for Gallantry (MG) for his actions on 2 March 2002 during Operation Anaconda while attached to the United States 10th Mountain Division in the Shahi Kot Valley, Afghanistan. He was aged 32 at the time.