John Volkoff
AWM memorial panel 78
John Volkoff
Sydney Mail, 20 October 1915, page 12 (image courtesy of Kim Phillips)
Russian spelling
Иван Павлович Волков
Born 1885
Place Malyi Iukhtunur, Iaransk, Viatka (Kirov), North-Eastern Russia
Ethnic origin Russian
Religion Roman Catholic (?)
Father Pavel Polikarp Volkoff
Arrived at Australia
from Far East
on 7.01.1912
per Nikko Maru
disembarked at Brisbane
Residence before enlistment Townsville, Qld
Occupation Carpenter
Service service number 2208
enlisted 5.04.1915
POE Townsville, Qld
unit 15th Battalion
rank Private
place Gallipoli, 1915
final fate KIA 8.08.1915
memorial 6 Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli
Naturalisation Served as Russian subject
Materials
Digitised service records (NAA)
Digitised Embarkation roll entry (AWM) (Valkoff)
Blog article
Newspaper articles
C.E.W. Bean. The Patrol. Scouts in the Scrub. - Argus, Melbourne, 20 December 1915, p. 7.
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
The postal address was seldom properly recorded, in some cases because of an enlisting officer's sheer inability to understand the Russian. Adding confusion was the fact that, in order to record the correct postal address of a Russian village, four administrative subdivisions are needed so that on the few occasions when this was done the result ended up being a sort of geographical brainteaser. For instance, John Volkoff's address was recorded as 'Weetsk, Pockesnky, Erask, Sergensky, Small, Uhtunose': it was a bibliographer from Viatka who suggested I decipher it as Viatka province, Iaransk, Serdezh, pochinok Malyi Iukhtunur. [...] John Volkoff was killed at Hill 971, near Lone Pine, in Gallipoli; I would have tried to contact his relatives in Iukhtunur, but it is now too late. His village no longer exists.