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Extract from "An Australian Band of Brothers, Don Company, 2nd/43rd Battalion, 9th Division" by Mark Johnston:

"Within minutes three 16 Platoon men were killed, including Corporal Jasper Wight, who, according to Allan (Jones), had been wounded before a Japanese officer finished him with a sword. The battalion history singles out Wight, a 26 year-old miner from Broken Hill, as a 'grand little footballer and boxer', while the Regimental Medical Officer said Wight's implacably good humour had a beneficial effect on all around him". (p.317)

Jasper John WIGHT was born on 26th June 1917 in Broken Hill, NSW

His parents were Stanley David WIGHT and Loveday Keturah LORD

He first enlisted in Broken Hill on 20th January, 1941 and then again at Wayville, South Australia on 4th February, 1941

He was with the Australian Infantry 2/43 Battalion which embarked on 17th September, 1941 on the HMAT Confoy

Jasper was Killed in Action in New Guinea on 18th October, 1943 and buried elsewhere & on 1st May, 1946 he was reburied at Lae War Cemetery - the names of the other cemeteries/burial places are unreadable on his war record - He is honoured at the Australian War Memorial and the Roll of Honour in Broken Hill, NSW

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"Cpl. Jasper Wight. Killed In Action

Mr. and Mrs. D. S. Wight, of 85 Mica Street, received a telegram yesterday stating that their son, Corporal Jasper John Wight, D. Company. 2/43rd   Battalion of the 9th Division, was killed in action in New Guinea on Octobcr 18. Jasper was a most popular lad and was particularly well known because of his sporting activities, and many expressions of sympathy have been made to the parents in their deep bereavement.  

Corporal Wight was born in Broken Hill in June, 1917, and was therefore 26 years of age at the time of his death. He bore the name of two of his uncles who served in the last war — the late Mr. Jasper Lord (a brother of his mother), who died from' industrial disease after being a miner and later a shift boss at the British mine, and John Wight, a brother of Mr. D. S. Wight, who was killed at Lone Pine, Gallipoli. Corporal Wight was educated at the Central School, and Junior Technical College, and was employed for a long time at the Service Stores. He left that work to go on the Thompson Section of the North mine as a trucker, and was there when he enlisted in 1941. He was a member of the W.I.U. of A. of which his father is vice-president.

He served in the second Libyan campaign and was in the push of El Alamein, which gave the start to the expulsion of the Italian and German forces from Africa. He also served through the Syrian campaign. He returned from the Middle East with the 9th Division, and went with that famed Division to New Guinea. It is reasonably assumed that he lost his life in the recent severe fighting when the Japs sought to retake Finschhafen.

Jasper was fond of boxing in which he had a great deal of skill, and there would be few indeed who would dare to criticise any action of his when in the ring, and outside of the ring he was an even tempered well behaved lad who never used his boxing skill to bully. Corporal Wight was also a prominent player for the Central Football Club, including among his trophies being one for the best Junior." - from the Barrier Daily Truth 29 Oct 1943 (nla.gov.au)