The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX47485) Private Gordon Frank Haiser, 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps, Second Australian Imperial Force, 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (NX47485) Private Gordon Frank Haiser, 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps, Second Australian Imperial Force, Second World War.

NX47485, Private Gordon Frank Haiser, 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps, Second Australian Imperial Force
DOD 7 February 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 December 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Gordon Frank Haiser, who died on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Lismore in north-eastern New South Wales on 12 April 1921, Gordon Haiser was the son of Norman Charles George Haiser and Alice Una May Haiser of Dunoon. Growing up, Gordon – nicknamed “Hock” – attended school at Boggumbil and at Lismore High School.

When the Second World War broke out Haiser was working as butcher with his father. Together, they owned the Dunnon Butchery. He was also a poultry and pig fancier, and trained horses.

Gordon Haiser was a keen sportsman. He loved fishing, was a renowned local cricketer and motorcycle enthusiast, and was much loved in his community. A family anecdote recalls that he was often lectured by his mother about the girls he left behind.

After enlisting in September 1940, at the age of 19, Haiser was posted to the headquarters of the 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps. In July 1941 he embarked from Sydney for overseas service, arriving in Singapore the following month.

Following Japan’s entry into the war in December 1941, the 8th Division fought in the defence of the Malayan peninsula. On 15 February 1942, after weeks of fierce fighting, Singapore fell to the Japanese, and Haiser became one of 45,000 Australian and British troops captured in the surrender.

Haiser spent the first period of his imprisonment at Selarang Barracks in the large prisoner-of-war camp at Changi, in Singapore. There, Haiser’s duty was to be the cook for his unit.

After a period at Changi, Haiser was drafted into a large workforce of slave labourers bound for Thailand, where they were employed by the Japanese to construct the Burma–Thailand Railway. Conditions were horrendous. Many of the prisoners working on the railway were malnourished, and disease was rife. It was in Thailand that Gordon Haiser died of illness – beriberi – on 7 February 1944. He was just 22 years old.

Gordon Haiser’s body is buried in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Gordon Frank Haiser, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section