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Australia

James Brazier was the second youngest of five children born to Fredrick, who was a Fireman, and Lizzie Brazier. Sadly Doris Rose, and Sylvia Florence died young, before the family sailed for Australia. They left England in September 1921 on the SS Baradine. In Australia his sister Vera May and brother Cyril Herbert were born.

James married Joyce Mary Brazier (nee Dowsell) at Burwood in 1938 and 1939 they had a son, Kerry James. They lived at Five Dock, Sydney, where James worked as a Bread Carter.

He enlisted at Homebush in October 1939 and was a member of the 2/4th Australian Infantry Battalion. A year later, after a farewell March through the streets of Sydney the Battalion embarked for the Middle East, aboard the Strathnaver, sailing via Freemantle and Colombo, arriving in Kantara, Egypt in mid February.

James was promoted to Corporal in March 1940, and that same month was admitted to an Australian military hospital for two weeks suffering from ulcerated legs and hand.

The Battalion camped at Kilo 89, near Gaza, in Palestine and undertook further exercises and training in Egypt and Palestine before committing to the fight against the Italians in the Libyan desert.

In April 1941, along with British and New Zealand troops, the Battalion was deployed to Greece to resist a German invasion. They were rapidly pushed back and about 500 of 2/4th were evacuated by sea to Crete, where they fought around the Heraklion Airfield, initially defending the position during heavy fighting. The Battalion was again evacuated and came under heavy aerial attack. 
They were on Destroyers by 9.15 on the 29th May and had to sail through the "Dreaded Straight of Scarfanto (Bomb Alley) and the convoy was consistently attacked by up to 100 dive bombers, taking heavy casualties. Tragically it is around this time that James lost his life. He was 24 years old. 

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