The son of Robert Russell and Emily Helena Hosie, Bairnsdale butcher Gustave enlisted on 22 June 1915, six months after his older brother Russell had joined the AIF. Gustave was twenty-four years old and had been serving with the 13th Australian Light Horse at Bairnsdale.

Gustave was posted to the 5th Battalion 9th Reinforcement and embarked on HMAT Star of Victoria on 10 September 1915. In Egypt at the beginning of 1916, he was transferred to the 57th Battalion on 17 February and then to the 59th a month later. On 29 April he was sent to the School of Instruction at Zeitoun, near Cairo, in preparation for embarkation with the British Expeditionary Force to France.

Arriving at Marseilles at the end of June 1916, Lance Corporal Hosie was soon involved in the vicious fighting on the Western Front. On 19 July he was reported ‘missing in action’ following the disastrous Battle of Fromelles.

The finding of a court of enquiry convened in the field by the Commanding Officer of the 59th Battalion on 29 August 1917, was that Lance Corporal Hosie was ‘killed in action on 19 July 1916 and presumably buried in no-man’s land’. Tragically, his brother Russell suffered the same fate.

He is commemorated at VC Corner, the Australian Cemetery & Memorial at Fromelles.