Paul Ippolit Kirvalidze was born in the Kutaisi area in Georgia and came to Australia via the Russian Far East in 1913. Later he would tell his neighbours that he escaped from a prison there. In Australia hesettled in Gordon, north of Sydney, working as a grocer. He actively participated in Russian political organisations in Australia.
Enlisting in the AIF, he served with the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front, where he was wounded in July 1916. Recovering, he returned to the trenches, attaining the rank of sergeant.
After the Armistice, he joined the British Army and was sent to Russia with the British Military Mission. Later he worked for the American Relief Mission, helping famine stricken districts of Russia. In 1923 he was arrested by Soviet security forces and sentenced to death as a British spy, but luckily, with the help of British authorities he was released and returned to Australia in 1925. He lived in Mackay and Mount Isa, working as a wharf labourer and tobacco grower. Later he married a Russian woman, Nadia Priadko, settled in Brisbane, and became the owner of the Paddington Hotel.
Anthony Puris, a Lithuanian from the village Padustis in Kovno Province, served on the ships as a fireman. The earliest records about his voyages in Australian waters relate to November 1914. By the time of enlistment he lived in Newcastle and gave his occupation as a miner.
He came to the Western Front with the 4th Battalion and was wounded in the left knee at Mouquet Farm in August 1916. Recovering, he returned to the front and was killed at the Battle for Bullecourt in May 1917.
Russian Anzacs