79 years after his death overseas during the last few months of World War II, John Shearer’s name has been added to the back of our Anzac Day Eve guernsey panel, which honours those Richmond players and officials who died in War.
After receiving a permit to play with Richmond in August 1943, the then 19-year-old Shearer was named in the Reserves squad for the last game of the year against Essendon.
At the time he was posted at the No. 1 Embarkment Depot in Ascot Vale (where the Showgrounds are).
The permit request for Shearer in The Argus, Aug 5 1943, page 9
Because of the impact of war service on the club, no fewer than 61 Reserves players were named throughout the season.
And because Shearer never played a Senior game, and his time at Tigerland was ever so brief, he had been forgotten almost instantly in the club’s records.
His service and sacrifice was only uncovered recently during a much larger project by Rhett Bartlett to document every Richmond Reserves player in our history.
The squad on the morning of August 28th, as printed in The Argus
Born in Richmond on July 6 1924, Shearer was educated at Yarra Park State School from 1936-38 and then Melbourne Technical School 1938-1941.
He was an 18-year-old laboratory assistant at the time of enlisting with the RAAF on November 6 1942.
12 days after the Reserves match in 1943, he set off to serve overseas.
John Garnet Shearer
At 11.04pm on April 6 1945, he was aboard a Boston Mark IV aircraft which successfully attacked Italy’s ferry terminals east of Pontelagoscuro, which were being used for supplies and reinforcements.
But on its return flight the aircraft encountered “hostile opposition” and was shot down by flak and crashed into the Adriatic Sea near Porto Garibaldi at 12.20am.
The pilot survived, but Shearer, aged 20, and two other airmen died. Their bodies were never recovered. His squadron’s motto was Animo et fide, “With courage and faith”.
Shearer’s war file includes handwritten notations of a grim conversation between his father and the Commanding Officer who sent a telegram announcing his death.
It includes the stark reality from the father that “he cannot hold out hope of member’s survival”, that he “desired further information for mother’s sake”, but that “both wife and himself have given up hope.”
Extract from Casualty-Repatriation file of John Shearer held at the Australian War Memorial.
John Garnet Shearer’s name is inscribed on the Malta Memorial in Floriana, which commemorates some 2,300 airmen who died in World War II and have no known grave.
And belatedly, now his name appears on the back of Richmond’s Anzac guernsey.
Richmond members are reminded that to attend our Anzac Day Eve match you must secure your seat. General admission memberships must be upgraded to a reserved ticket by entering your barcode on the Ticketek website.
