Alexander Popow

Alexander Popow
(Courtesy of David Alexander)

Alias In the USA changed his name to Peter Popow Alexander

Russian spelling

Александр Александрович Попов

Born 21.11.1886

Place Glukhov, Chernigov, Ukraine

Ethnic origin Russian

Religion Russian Orthodox

Father Aleksandr Nikolaevich Popov (1837-1910)

Mother Maria Vladimirovna Popova (nee Poltoratski, in the first marriage Kalinina) (1862-1918)

Family

Wife Eleanor Peirson (nee Ritchie), married 1922; son Paul (1924-1981) & daughter Lois

Residence before arrival at Australia Received Degree of Electrical Engineering at the University of Liege (Belgium), served for 2 years for the Russian Government

Arrived at Australia
from New Zealand
on 01.1914

Residence before enlistment Melbourne

Occupation Electrical engineer, worked in electrometallurgy research in the USA

Service
service number 833, 379
enlisted 16.01.1915
POE Melbourne
unit 2nd Field Company Engineers
rank Sapper
place Gallipoli, 1915; Western Front, 1916
casualties WIA 1915, 1916
discharged 4.06.1917 in London, MU

Naturalisation Served as Russian subject

Residence after the war 1916 London. 29.06.1919 arrived from Liverpool to New York per 'Orduna'; last residence Blagoveshchensk, East Siberia. Settled in Boston, USA. 1933 Thesis (Sc. D.) "The preparation of pure chromium".

Died 24.01.1962 Beverly, Mass, USA

Materials

Digitised service records (NAA)

Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM)

[Australian Imperial Force Headquarters (London) Administrative Registry - Medical personnel administration files]: ... [/4] 379 Sapper A Popow; ... (NAA)

[Australian Imperial Force Headquarters (London) Administrative Registry - Medical personnel administration files]: ... [/24] 379 Sapper A Popow. (NAA)

Family tree on Ancestry.com

Blog article

Russian

English

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

It was a grim return to the Somme [1916]: under the autumn rains much of the battlefield turned into a bog; the trenches filled with water. Among the many casualties here was Alexander Popow, a Russian general's son, who had studied electrical engineering at the University of Liège, Belgium. Popow survived multiple shell-wounds, only to develop gas gangrene, and spent nearly six months in English hospitals, undergoing three operations, which left him with 63 scars on his left leg alone.