Alex Alexandroff

Alias Alaxandroff
Russian spelling Александр Семенович Александров
Born 17.04.1893
Place Vladivostok, Russia
Ethnic origin Russian
Religion Russian Orthodox
Father Simon Alexandroff
Mother Martha
Family 1943 married Doris Fairy Cook; son Kenneth John (1941-1953), daughter Norma Evelyn (1945-1976) */
Arrived at Australia from Russia
on 1914
per East London
disembarked at Sydney
Residence before enlistment Sydney
Occupation 1916 cook, 1919 chemist, 1940 chef
Naturalisation 1941
Residence after the war Sydney, 1940 Melbourne, 1943 Sydney
Died 15.01.1968, St Leonards, Sydney
Cemetery Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Sydney

Service #1

Service number 6823
Enlisted 14.08.1916
Place of enlistment Sydney
Unit 4th Battalion
Rank Private
Place Western Front, 1917-1919
Final fate RTA 1920
Discharged 25.08.1919 in London

Service #2 – British Army

Enlisted 1919
Place of enlistment London
Unit Middlesex Regiment, the North Russian Relief Force
Rank Acting Sergeant
Place Russia, 1919-1920
Discharged 1920

Materials

Digitised naturalisation (NAA)

Digitised service records (NAA)

Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM) (Alaxandroff)

*/ Tree on Ancestry.com

Blog article

Russian

English

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

[...] five Russians enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment, mostly as interpreters, and served with the North Russian Relief Force: Alex Alexandroff, from Vladivostok (a former cook), Robert Meerin and Anthony Minkshlin, from the Baltic region (both former seamen), Ivan Odliff, from Nizhny Novgorod (a former boiler-maker), and Paul Smirnoff, a 19-year-old former miner from Vologda, northern Russia. Richard Gregorenko planned to join them but later changed his mind and returned to Australia. They arrived in Archangel in summer 1919 and fought against the pro-Bolshevik forces in the area until the final evacuation of Allied forces a year later. Minkshlin was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal for this campaign.

[...] Alex Alexandroff [...] was returning by ship in January 1920 after taking part in the military expedition to Russia when he somehow incurred the suspicions of the ship's commanding officer, who reported that he had 'caused a great deal of trouble on the voyage and that he was a Bolshevik'. The Intelligence branch wanted his luggage searched and advised that he should be kept under observation after landing in Australia, but the police had no address for him and lost his trail. It was probably a false alarm. Alexandroff subsequently worked as a cook and never again came to the attention of the Intelligence branch. In 1941, when applying to become naturalised, Alexandroff wrote: 'I cannot be dishonest to this country that I have been in, nearly 30 years'.

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