Russian Anzacs

Roland Arthur Cooper came from a family of a British engineer who was working in Russia. He was born in Mariupol in Ukraine and later lived in Volsk, but in 1909 the whole family moved to Sydney. Cooper was trained as a draughtsman, and with the outbreak of the war, he served in the Militia in Sydney before his parents allowed him to enlist in the AIF in 1917, when he was nineteen.
He served as a gunner and a driver in the artillery regiments on the Western Front in 1918.
Returning to Sydney after the war, he worked as a newsagent, taking over his father’s business. In 1932 he married Eileen Emily Moss.

Alexander Rayzner, a Jewish man from Odessa, had lived in Hong Kong for four years prior to his arrival in Australia. Coming to Australia in 1913, he worked as a tailor in Sydney.
Enlisting in the AIF in Sydney, he was assigned to the Light Trench Mortar Battery, serving in a Depot, and was discharged half a year later as medically unfit.
After his discharge Rayzner moved to Victoria, living in Melbourne and Armadale, where he settled with Ethel Bennett in 1918 and continued his occupation of a tailor.

Nicholai Charles Uppeneeck, a Latvian from Riga, who had some experience of service on the submarines in the Russian Navy, came to Australia in 1911.
Enlisting in the AIF in Adelaide, he was discharged four months later as medically unfit.
After the war he married an Australian girl, Ettie Lavinia Grigsby, and raised a large family, working as a bicycle mechanic.

Gilbert Solomon, a Jewish man from Siberia, came to Australia around 1911 and settled in Perth.
He was discharged from the AIF soon after his enlistment as medically unfit.
After the war he lived in Katanning, working as a tailor.