Waldemar Franz von Kroeber
Waldemar Kroeber
Sunday Times, Perth, 28 January 1917, p. 8S
Waldemar Kroeber's headstone
Courtesy of grandson Brad Kroeber
Alias Woldemar; Walter Krober
Russian spelling
Владимир Николаевич Кребер
Born 14.04.1887
Place St Petersburg, Russia
Ethnic origin German / Russian
Religion Lutheran
Father Nikolai Kreber
Family
Wife Eva May nee Cook, married 1933; children: son Walter Charles Addison, b. 1933, son Ivan Nicholai Kroeber, daughter Jeanette
Contacts
Cousin Paul Tapken
Residence before arrival at Australia Served for 2 years in the Medical Corps, St Petersburg, was seaman for about 10 years
Arrived at Australia
from Russia
on 14.04.1909
per Juno
disembarked at Bunbury, WA
Residence before enlistment Bunbury, WA
Occupation 1911 labourer, lumper, 1915 sailor
Service service number 3504
enlisted 24.07.1915
POE Bunbury, WA
unit 16th Battalion
rank Private
place Western Front, 1916-1918
casualties WIA 1916
final fate RTA 28.02.1919
discharged 3.06.1919
Naturalisation 1911
Residence after the war Fremantle, WA
Died 5.08.1966, Fremantle, WA
Materials
Digitised naturalisation (NAA)
Digitised service records (NAA)
Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM)
Approval for overpayment of sustenance (NAA)
Personal case file 1 2 3(NAA)
Digitised ASIO file (NAA)
Blog articles
Russian German genealogy - the case of one surname, by Tana on 'Find Russian Heritage'
Newspaper articles
Narrow escape from drowning. - Southern Times, Bunbury, 19 November 1912, p. 2
A West Australian at Pozieres. - The West Australian, Perth, 30 October 1916, page 7, 8
Echo of waterside dispute. - The West Australian, Perth, 7 September 1928, page 12
Lumper falls into hold. - The West Australian, Perth, 6 October 1936, page 19
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
It is not always easy to determine the level of this Russianisation, as I found when first looking at the file of Waldemar Franz von Kroeber, a Lutheran, with German parents, who had served two years in the AIF on the Western front, and was wounded at Mouquet Farm. At first sight, he seemed to be definitely a Baltic German and I would have said he was one if I hadn't found a letter written in Russian his sister Liza sent him from Leningrad in the 1930s. The letter was addressed to her 'little brother Volodia', which sounded so characteristically Russian. The letter emotionally describes all the misfortunes that befell their large family following the revolution. Her unsophisticated words made me realise how Russianised this family actually was -- that, really, they were Russian and not German, no matter how Germanic his name appeared to be.
As for Liza's letter, the Australian security service confiscated it when her brother Waldemar came to their attention owing to his affiliation with the Communist Party of Australia. The ways of the security service were harsh; yet I am grateful to the official who decided to keep this pile of pages covered in Russian script (which they never even translated into English), instead of throwing them away -- many officials never preserved this kind of material at all.