Fedor Leyko, a Belarusian from Slonim, came to Queensland in 1914 from the Far East and was working in Mount Morgan as a labourer.
He enlisted in the AIF in Rockhampton, but was discharged a week later as medically unfit.
In 1916-1917 he worked in Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, but after that he disappears from the records; it is most likely that he returned to Belarus.
Alexis Tupicoff, a young Russian from Perekopnoe in Samara Province, lived with his family in the Far East and followed his brother Nicholas to Australia in 1914. He worked as a railway labourer in Queensland.
Enlisting in the AIF in Rochampton with Leyko and Wagin, he served with the 42nd Battalion on the Western Front. In June 1917, near Messines, he was severely wounded in the face, mouth and trachea; he survived, but his face was permanently disfigured.
After the war he wanted to rerurn to Russia, but was not allowed by the Australian authorities. He tried farming in a soldiers’ settlement, Coominya, then worked as a linesman in Atherton and finally moved to Ipswich where his brother Nicholas lived with his family.
John Wagin, a Russian from Voinovo village in Vladimir Province, came to Australia from the Far East in 1913, leaving his wife and daughter in Russia. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF, he worked as a miner in Mount Morgan. He participated in the political activities of the Union of Russian Emigres and in 1915 was elected as its Mount Morgan section secretary.
He served with the 47th Battalion on the Western Front. In April 1918, at Dernancourt, he was wounded in the arm. After Russia’s withdrawal from the war in 1918 Wagin refused soldering and was finally returned to Australia.
The Australian authorities kept him under observation because of his radicalism, which he did not hide. Unfortunately, in one of their raids they confiscated his private WWI journal. After the war, when his wife in Russia died, Wagin married an Australian woman, Mary Moyce, who was a widow of another Russian, Fred Joga, killed in a mining accident. After farming in Innisfail, Wagin worked as a waterside worker and motor driver.
Emil Ferdinand Sandell, a Finnish seaman, by the time of his enlistment in the AIF, was working as a farm labourer in Leongatha in Victoria.
He served with the 1st Pioneers Battalion on the Western Front. In August 1916 he was wounded in the head at Mouquet Farm and repatriated to Australia.
After the war he lived in Melbourne working as a labourer. In 1924 he was convicted for drunkenness and his photo appeared in the Police Gazette. He died in 1931.
Russian Anzacs