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Hiltunen, Walinkevic

Today we celebrate the lives of two servicemen, both former seamen:

 

Alexander Hiltunen

  • A Finn from Vyborg, born in a well connected family, came to South Australia in 1910 aged 20.
  • Settled in Port Elliot at Mrs Trigg’s, who took him into her family as a son and taught him English. Was one of the first to enlist in the area.
  • Wounded soon after landing in Gallipoli, he recovered but soon succumbed to TB which he had contracted at the front.
  • Repatriated to Australia and died a few months later, nursed on his death bed by the kind Mrs Trigg. The local community raised money and established a monument for him.

 

Kazis Walinkevic

  • A Lithuanian from Mariampol, he came to Western Australia in 1910 as a seaman.
  • Enlisted in the AIF as Kazis Walinkevic, was wounded soon after the Gallipoli landing, recovered and returned to the trenches, but lost his hearing as a result of a shell explosion.
  • Repatriated to Australia, he was discharged as “Charles Volukawytz”. When in 1925 his wife from Lithuania sent a query about “Kazimir Valukevicius”, an officer from Base Records had to undertake a whole investigation to combine these two apparently separate individuals back into one!