Russian Anzacs

Rudolf Bartleson, a Latvian engine fitter and sailor, came to Australia not long before the war.
He enlisted in Cairns, but did not embark with his regiment and no further records about his service were noted.
He continued his occupation as a sailor, moving to New York where he married and naturalised.

Stephen Loosgie, a Ukrainian, was born in the village in Chernigov Province. He came to Brisbane from the Far East in 1914 and worked on the railway construction sites.
Enlisting in the AIF, he served at Gallipoli and the Western Front with the 26^th Battalion. In March 1917 he was wounded in the forearm in battle for Lagnicourt. Returning to the trenches after recovery, he left his unit, was caught and court martialled as a deserter. He pleaded not guilty, explaining at the trial that his 3 brothers were killed while serving in the Russian Army and his old father needed his help. His commander attested him as a ‘good man in the line’. Loosgie was found not guilty in desertion and returned to the trenches. In November 1917 he was gassed at Passchendaele and in July 1918 he was wounded again, shrapnel fractured his right arm. After that he was finally returned to Australia.
He made his living opening a fruit shop on Logan Road in South Brisbane, at the centre of the Russian colony there. In 1924 he made an attempt to return to Russia, but did not go further than Harbin, finally returning back to Australia.

Theodor Vasiliev was a sailor from Novaia Kalisha near St Petersburg (Petrograd).
Enlisting in the AIF in Melbourne, he came to Gallipoli with the 23^rd Battalion in August 1915. In November he was severely wounded in the shoulder, invalided back to Australia and discharged. Although he was granted a pension, he made one more attempt to enlist in the Army, but was found medically unfit.
He died in a sanatorium in Heidelberg near Melbourne in 1924 and his Australian friends Mr and Mrs Tracey placed an advertisement in an Australian newspaper, commemorating his death.