Peter John Potter
Peter John Potter
Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to The Queenslander, 4 March 1916, p. 22
Alias Peter Goncharoff (true name)
Russian spelling
Петр Иванович Гончаров
Born 4.06.1886
Place Saratov, Russia
Ethnic origin Russian
Religion Russian Orthodox
Father John Potter
Family
Wife Victoria Potter (née Streeten), married 1917 in England, by 1919 had two children; son John Victor William Potter (1918-1941), KIA during WWII in Giarabub, Libya; son Peter, b. 1919
Arrived at Australia
from Saratov, Russia
on 23.07.1911
per Nikko Maru
disembarked at Brisbane
Residence before enlistment Brisbane
Occupation Painter
Service service number 1642
enlisted 7.08.1915
POE Brisbane
unit 2nd Light Horse Regiment, 12th FAB, 112th Howitzer Battery, Adm. Headquarters
rank Trooper, Gunner
place Western Front, 1917-1919
final fate RTA 22.12.1919
discharged 12.04.1920
Naturalisation 1914
Residence after the war Brisbane, 1939 Merrylands, NSW, 1949 Granville, NSW
Died June 1951, Merrylands, Parramatta, NSW
Materials
Digitised naturalisation (NAA)
Blog article
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
Despite his apparently European name, Potter turned out to have been born in Saratov, on the Volga River, and to have been Greek Orthodox. In addition, he gave his postal address as 'c/o Mr Stepanoff, Merivale St, Brisbane', a well-known lodging-house frequented by ethnic Russian émigrés, including many radicals. Taken together, all this provides sufficient grounds for including Potter with the Russians, culturally at least.