Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Leading Aircraftman Denis Joseph Hearn (Service No: 79025) enlisted in the RAAF as an Aircraftman I (mustered as a Mess Steward, then re-mustered as a Cook). He had served as a Private with the Citizen Forces (111th Battery from 1927 to 1930). LAC Hearn served with 36 Squadron and was attached to Brisbane Medical Unit at Discharge in May 1945. Earlier that year Denis was sentenced to one month goal for assaulting a Policeman in Brisbane.

Denis was the fifth of nine children of George Hearn (b1879 in Kent, England) and Elizabeth Mary O'Keefe (b1884 in Innisfail, QLD). George was four years of age when he arrived in Cooktown, QLD with his family on board the Almora. He was a Miner in Innisfail when he married Elizabeth in 1903. They settled in Innisfail where George worked as a Miner before enlisting in the AIF in 1916. He was a Private (Service No:6261) when he died in May 1919 from wounds. Elizabeth - with seven surviving young children - remarried in December 1919 to Charles Strange in Nambour, QLD. The family moved to Brisbane in 1921 and Elizabeth and Charles had four children together.

Denis was a Mill Hand in 1928 in Brisbane, QLD when he married Alice Elizabeth Thomas (b1915 in Brisbane, QLD). Denis and Alice settled in Brisbane where Denis was working as a Cellarman when he enlisted in the RAAF in October 1942. In 1943 he set his home on fire during a violent fight with his wife. Denis and Alice were Divorced in 1953, with Denis was described as a 'chappie with a fiery temper' (Truth, 12 July 1953; p10).

Denis then relocated to Broken Hill where he was working as a Barman when he married Irene Gladys in 1956. Denis and Irene returned to Brisbane where Denis worked as a Labourer. In the late 1960s they separated and Irene returned to Adelaide, South Australia where she died in 2017. Denis remained in Brisbane and worked as a Greaser - greasing small arms and artillery pieces to prevent corrosion during shipment or storage. Denis died in 1996.