The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (QX20636) Sergeant James Oliver Hosier, 2/12th Battalion, Second AIF, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Dennis Stockman, the story for this day was on (QX20636) Sergeant James Oliver Hosier, 2/12th Battalion, Second AIF, Second World War.

QX20636 Sergeant James Oliver Hosier, 2/12th Battalion, Second AIF
KIA 9 January 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 12 October 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant James Oliver Hosier.

Born in Richmond, Queensland, on 19 March 1914, James Oliver Hosier was the son of May Hosier and William James Hosier. Hosier was working as a tram conductor in Brisbane when he enlisted in the AIF on the 21st of February 1941.

During training in Queensland, Hosier soon rose through the ranks and by the time he embarked for the Middle East he held the rank of sergeant. Once in the Middle East, Hosier undertook further training before joining the 2/12th Battalion, part of the Australian 7th Division.

By this point the Japanese had entered the war, and in the early months of 1942 the units of the 7th Division were recalled to Australia. On his return from overseas service Hosier soon married Euphemia on 29 May 1942.

Not long after, in August 1942, Hosier sailed from Brisbane with the 2/12th Battalion to Milne Bay in New Guinea. In the following battle, in which the Australian forces managed, in atrocious tropical conditions, to successfully repel a Japanese landing, Hosier was mentioned by name in the volume of the Australian official history series that documented the conflict. The battle of Milne Bay was the first comprehensive defeat of a Japanese landing during the Second World War.

In the months after Milne Bay, the 2/12th Battalion was stationed at Goodenough Island. They returned to Papua in December to take part in the bitter and costly beachhead battles of Buna, Gona, and Sanananda.

It was during the fighting around Sanananda on 9 January 1943 that Sergeant James Hosier was killed in action. His body now rests alongside more than 3,500 Australian war dead in the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Bomana, Port Moresby.

In 1947, on the anniversary of Hosier’s death, Euphemia and his family posted notices in the Brisbane Courier Mail. Euphemia wrote:

It does not take a special day
To bring you back to mind.
The days I do not think of you
Are hard to find.
His mother, father, and siblings wrote:
In a soldiers grave he is sleeping
Far across the restless sea.
He gave his life to save us
And keep his homeland free.
We miss him as the days go by
We love him as of yore.
We hope to meet him up above
And never part no more.
Until such time may God protect
The fearless and the brave.
And make us worthy of the love
For which his life he gave.

Hosier’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with the names of some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of honour, courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sergeant James Oliver Hosier, and all of those Australians who gave their lives in the service of the nation.