Russian Anzacs

Arthur Kodak, an Estonian from Revel (Tallinn) came to Australia in 1910 as a seaman. He had a trade of compositor and worked in Brisbane.
He served with the 26^th Battalion on the Western Front as Arthur Kadak. He was severely wounded at Pozières (with gunshot wounds to the head and chest) in August 1916. After recovery in Brisbane he served in the Royal Australian Naval Brigade.
After the war he worked in sugar mills in Queensland, and later settled in Sydney, where he married an Australian woman, Alice Lynch. He worked as a labourer and storeman and had a hard time during the Depression, when he lived in the unemployment camp at La Perouse.

John Bunke, a seaman from Libava (Liepaja) in Latvia, spent 25 years at sea before he landed at Busselton in Western Australia in 1911. He settled at Geraldton, working as a fisherman and living in a fishing boat there.
Enlisting in the AIF in Melborne, he was discharged five months later as medically unfit (he was about 47 years old by that time).

Harry Cooper, a Jewish man from Kovno (Kaunas) in Lithuania, came to Melbourne probably from South Africa, where his father lived. He worked as a commercial traveller in Victoria.
He tried to enlist in the AIF at the beginning of the war, but was rejected. In July 1915, after the second attempt, he was finally accepted and sailed to the front with the 7^th Battalion. Later he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion and fought at the Western Front. In January 1918 he was wounded in the head and received a knife wound to the left hand, probably while in direct combat with the enemy.
While convalescing in London, he met a Jewish girl, Lena Heller. They married in January 1919, sailed together to South Africa, and lived in Johannesburg.

August Pettersson, a Latvian from Livonia, was a pastry cook by trade. He came to Australia in 1914 and lived in Melbourne.
Enlisting in the AIF he was allocated to the 4^th Field bakery, but while in England fell ill with tuberculosis and returned to Australia.
After the war he lived in Victoria and Queensland.

Andrew Egoroff, a Russian from Saratov on Volga River, was an engine driver in the Russian Navy. He came to Western Australia in 1913 and worked as a bush timber worker in North Dandalup.
Enlisting in the AIF, he was allocated to the 4^th Field bakery and served on the Western Front. In May 1918 he commited suicide in Rouen.
The Australian authorities made a number of attempts to find his mother in Saratov after the war.