James Shearer played for Western Suburbs in Toowoomba prior to enlisting in June 1916. Two sisters also gave service in a munitions factory in England.
He reached France with the 15th Battalion reinforcements in March 1917, but within a month was sent to hospital suffering from frostbite. As a result he missed the first attack on Bullecourt in April 1917. He rejoined his unit a month later, in time for the Battalion to be moved to Belgium, where it fought in in the Third Battle of Ypres which started in July. However, Shearer returned to hospital in September with scabies and would not recover until 1918.
He returned to Australia in 1919 and after a series of amateur stage dramatics and singing recitals with the Caledonian Society, moved to Coolangatta in 1923.