Denis Papchuck
Daniel Papchuck in the 1940s
WWII alien registration (NAA)
Alias Daniel (used since 1930s)
Russian spelling
Денис Максимович Папчук
Born 3.09.1891
Place Berezdov, Volyn, Ukraine
Ethnic origin Ukrainian
Religion Russian Orthodox
Father Maxim Papchuck
Mother Ulyana (or Olga) Papchuck
Family
1919 married Edith Agnes Fletcher in England, 3 children, 1928 divorce; 1932 married Annie Mabel Hannah (1912-1943), children Alexander John, Olga, Robert Daniel, Evelyn, Raymond, Fay, Leslie; 1949 married Olive Emily Ivey
Residence before arrival at Australia South America 08.1912 - 01.1913
Arrived at Australia
from South America (?)
on 20.03.1913
per Marie
disembarked at Geraldton
Residence before enlistment Geraldton, WA
Occupation 1915 farmer, 1952 painter and docker
Service service number 2358
enlisted 16.10.1915
POE Blackboy Hill, WA
unit Mining corps, 3rd Tunnelling Company
rank Sapper
place Western Front, 1916-1918
casualties WIA 1918
final fate RTA 12.03.1920
discharged 18.07.1919 in London
Naturalisation 1952
Residence after the war Geraldton, Busselton, Churchman's Brook, Perth, Fremantle, WA
Died 1958 Fremantle
Materials
Digitised naturalisation 1 2 (NAA)
Digitised service records (NAA)
Digitised Embarkation roll entry 1 2 (AWM)
Court martial file 1 2 (NAA)
Alien registration 1 2 (digitised) (NAA)
Wife's alien registration (NAA)
Investigation Branch file 1 2 (NAA)
Personal case file 1 2 (NAA)
Blog article
Newspaper articles
Stories in divorce. - The Daily News, Perth, 14 August 1928, p. 6.
Six divorce cases. - The West Australian, Perth, 15 August 1928, p. 13.
Divorce mill grinds unceasingly. - Truth Perth, 19 August 1928, p. 16, 15, ill.
Unemployment. The march on parliament. - The West Australian, 4 December 1930, p. 17.
Little boy scalded. - The West Australian, 7 July 1937, p. 8.
Knocked off bicycle. - The West Australian, 15 March 1943, p. 5.
Lumper steals chocolate. - The Daily News, Perth, 1 May 1944, p. 5.
Russian here 40 years is naturalised. - The West Australian, 29 July 1952, p. 4.
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
On 25 September [1918] two sappers from the 3rd Tunnelling Company -- Denis Papchuck, a Russian with a faultless service record, and his Australian comrade T.W. Johnson -- refused to get into a lorry that was to take them to the trenches, without their paybooks, arguing that they were acting in accordance with company orders. They were court-martialled together and, finally, given suspended sentences.
[...] some Russians considered that taking an oath of allegiance to the king at enlistment dispensed with the need to take another oath for naturalisation -- in the words of Peter Swirgsdin, who had been severely wounded at Passchendaele in 1917: 'I have taken the Oath of Alligian to His Majesty the King once and I consider it true for all times'. One of the last of these Russians to take out naturalisation papers (in 1952), Denis Papchuck, was reported as expressing similar sentiments: 'Having served with the A.I.F. in France and Egypt for three and a half years and been gassed and wounded, ... said he had regarded his honourable discharge as sufficient proof of naturalisation'.