WWII Light Infantry Battalion Soldier’s Memorial | Unveiled – 2018

With the unveiling of the WWII Light Infantry Battalion Soldier’s Memorial on Thursday Island in 2018, sculptor Liam Hardy delivered one of his most resonant and culturally significant public works to date. Commissioned by the Torres Strait Island Special Committee, this bronze figure pays solemn tribute to the only all-Indigenous battalion in Australian military history—a chapter long overlooked and now given the honour it deserves.

Bespoke Bronze Memorial statue of a smiling, muscular man with hat, dog tags, and rifle, handcrafted in a workshop; ideal custom memorial sculpture.

Project Snapshot

Location: Thursday Island, Torres Strait Islands, QLD

minimalist brown silhouette of a person with a circle head and semicircle body on a light background, elegant and timeless.

Client: Torres Strait Island Special Committee

Elegant brown feather quill displayed diagonally on a light background, symbolizing timeless tribute and classic remembrance.

Commission Type: Soldier’s Memorial

Materials: Bronze

Bespoke Bronze Memorial plaque illustration featuring a bronze broom sweeping dust, symbolizing remembrance and care on a clean white background.

Figures Sculpted: 1

Completion Date: October 2018

Project Overview

Remembering the All-Indigenous Battalion

Hardy’s sculpture is not merely commemorative; it is revelatory. Through meticulous detail and powerful stance, the figure communicates the strength, resilience, and loyalty of the Torres Strait Islander men who served during World War II. At a time when nearly every military-aged man in the region enlisted, their collective sacrifice becomes personified in this lone sentinel, who—forever at his post—guards both memory and legacy.

The inscription, “He stands forever at his post, with his Sarpeye,” is poignantly matched by the sculpture’s bearing: watchful, dignified, unwavering. There is a stillness to Hardy’s rendering that echoes the discipline and quiet heroism of these soldiers, many of whom served without equal pay or recognition during their lifetimes. It is in this context that Hardy’s work takes on a deeper, restorative role—correcting the historical record not with rhetoric, but with bronze.

Comparable in tone to Benjamin Scott’s Scottish National War Memorial or the more intimate Royal Irish Fusiliers memorials, Hardy’s tribute distinguishes itself by embedding itself within the community it honours. Its unveiling in the heart of the Torres Strait Islands marked not only an artistic achievement but a historic moment of cultural affirmation.

Liam Hardy has proven, once again, his remarkable capacity to channel national memory through form. This sculpture does not simply preserve history—it enshrines identity, service, and pride in a work of enduring emotional and historical gravity.