By formal assessment, Peter Grigg was ‘intellectually very superior and well educated,’ a man of academic inclination rather than practical and very much the type the Army could find difficult to effectively classify and place. Those same reports, clipped and unsentimental, noted an ineffective appearance, a lack of force of manner, and no outward sign of confidence. The Army’s evaluation was less than generous and not particularly subtle, but it was true that Peter was never cut to be a warrior.  He was, by nature and profession, a teacher and despite whatever shortcomings the Army’s examining officers saw, would find a place of distinction in service in Korea.

Before uniform and rank, Peter was a schoolteacher. Raised in Blenheim, a very sunny flat point on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, he was employed by the Wellington Education Board at the conclusion of World War II.  Teaching shaped his instincts toward structure, explanation, and patience, and these instincts would later find unexpected relevance in the New Zealand Army’s post-war commitments abroad. 

Grigg first attested for Jayforce on February 27th, 1946 at a moment when New Zealand’s role in the occupation of Japan was in its infancy. He entered camp in early March and advanced rapidly through permanent and temporary non-commissioned ranks, making corporal in June and temporary sergeant the following month. The quick pace reflected the post-war Army’s immediate need for educated, reliable men as the British Commonwealth Occupation Force expanded its responsibilities across western Japan. What had begun as control of a single prefecture soon grew into administration over several provinces, encompassing millions of civilians and requiring sustained military, civil, and administrative oversight.

He embarked for Japan, landing on August 19th to join the force of New Zealand units tasked with demilitarization patrols, the disposal of remaining war matériel, the supervision of repatriation camps processing hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and Korean civilians, and the maintenance of public order during Japan’s first post-war general election. The occupation also carried a humanitarian dimension, with troops assisting in disaster relief following a major earthquake late in 1946.

In January 1947 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and appointed as an education officer.  As the occupation settled into longer-term administrative presence, attention increasingly turned to morale, learning, and preparation for Kiwi soldiers’ eventual return to civilian life. Grigg’s service in Japan, which concluded in August 1947, established his military career path in sustaining the intellectual and institutional frameworks that allowed a modern expeditionary force to function.

When Kayforce was raised in response to the Korean War, Grigg again volunteered. He attested on June 9th, 1951 entering a force that rose out of much different needs than the peacetime occupation. Kayforce was a combat-oriented commitment, to be attached to a multinational Commonwealth formation and operating in an environment of movement, attrition, and logistical strain. Peter embarked on August 20th by flying boat bound for Australia.

His passage by sea from Australia to Korea was not without disruption. ‘Shortly after leaving Darwin, the Wahine ran aground on Masela Island in the Arafura Sea, east of Timor. There were no fatalities but the ship became a total loss.’   All of his clothing and some belongings were among the losses.  Grigg reached Korea via Japan, entering the theater on September 28th with the first element of the Signals component. The following day he was posted to the 1st Commonwealth Division Signals, where he would remain until May 1952.

By late 1951, the New Zealand contingent was still in the process of consolidating. Elements arrived in staggered fashion, and units underwent a period of acclimatization and training at Hiro before forward deployment. Signals personnel continued to arrive to the Division through December. Grigg commanded D Troop, a twenty-four-man dispatch unit equipped with sixteen jeeps and stationed at Divisional Headquarters. From December 1st, D Troop assumed responsibility for all signals dispatch services across the divisional area.

Dispatch riders and drivers operated across contested terrain, linking headquarters, regiments, and support units in all weather and at all hours. That Grigg – small in stature and of intellectual inclination over command presence – was entrusted with this responsibility suggests a competence that did not rely on theatrical authority. The Signals dispatch services demanded organization, reliability, and attention to detail, all of which were well within the bounds of his temperament.

In May 1952 he was posted to New Zealand Base Headquarters, and on June 9th he was promoted lieutenant and formally appointed education officer. The appointment came after a prolonged recognition within Kayforce that educational welfare required dedicated oversight. By 1951, more than a hundred servicemen had applied for educational assistance, prompting the government to agree to subsidize correspondence courses undertaken by Kayforce personnel. Major D. S. Gibb had provided interim support in this area, but the volume of demand made clear the need for a full-time officer.

From June 1952 until September 1953, Grigg rotated between postings with the Commonwealth Division and New Zealand Base Headquarters. He was well traveled during the ensuing months, spending only days at each base and amassing a sheet of transfers as he was ‘struck off’ and ‘taken on’ strength between two multiple times a week. 

By early 1953 he had approximately 150 men enrolled in correspondence-type courses. These ranged from basic education to professional qualifications, undertaken in tents, huts, and borrowed office spaces amid the routines of a field army. Peter’s work required negotiation with civilian institutions, coordination with military authorities, and persistent advocacy on behalf of men whose aspirations extended beyond the armistice line.

That the program persisted at all owed much to officers like Grigg, whose efforts were largely invisible within formal narratives of the war.  He was not so invisible that he was passed over for recognition.  After eighteen months as Education Officer, he ‘performed his duty in a most painstaking and thorough manner and gave himself wholeheartedly to the difficult and often thankless task of encouraging the individual soldier to continue his education while on service.’  Many Kiwi soldiers – not unlike any other nations’ troops – thought only of their future in terms of immediacy of leaving Korea as soon as possible to return to their lives, but gave less thought to exactly how to do so.  Peter thoughtfully contributed to just how they would pursue their own futures and always remained ‘cheerfully persistent in spite of setbacks’ and showed ‘initiative in planning and developing the welfare activities within the Force, thus contributing greatly the maintenance of its morale.’  

He was struck off strength of Kayforce in mid-1954 and departed Kobe on February 9th. He intended to study at the University of London before returning to New Zealand to resume teaching professionally and was granted extended leave in the United Kingdom from late March to mid-July to start.  He was ultimately discharged in the United Kingdom and transferred to the Territorial Force, closing active service that had taken him from post-war Japan to the frozen ridgelines and administrative corridors of Korea. In the end, Grigg represents a particular kind of service of modern armies that depend on the educated soldier and intend to see his success through to civilian life.  He never did return to New Zealand outside of visiting, and instead remained in England to teach.