Arthur Nicholas Ronlund from Finland came to Australia in 1900 with his parents, who were followers of Matti Kurikka’s colonisation venture; they were farming in Cooroy in Queensland.
Arthur served with the 15th Battalion on the Western Front. In April 1917 he was wounded in the knee and taken as a POW by the Germans at Bullecourt. After the end of the war he was repatriated to Australia.
After the war he married an Australian girl, Ada Ellen Gohdes, and worked as a police constable in Queensland.
Karl Fritz Paulin from Vindava (Ventspils) in Latvia was a boatswain in mercantile marine. He came to Australia in 1905 and was based in Newcastle.
He served with the 34th Battalion on the Western Front, attaining the rank of Corporal. He was awarded the Military Medal for his conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in Battle of Ypres in October 1917, when he worked as a stretcher bearer.
After the war he married an Australian girl, Nora Geraghty, and lived in Sydney working as a carpenter.
August Limwerk from Revel (Tallinn) in Estonia, although he sometimes provided his place of birth as Riga, came to Australia in 1914 as a seaman, leaving his wife and child in Estonia. He also had the trade of an electrical engineer.
He enlisted in the AIF in Perth, but was discharged five months later as medically unfit.
William George Averkoff came to Australia in 1910 with his family when he was twelve. They took up cane-farming near Innisfail. In 1915 his father died in an accident. To help his family – he had five younger siblings –William started to master the trade of bookbinder.
In March 1916, putting his age up, he enlisted in the AIF. He came to the Western Front with 47th Battalion and was killed at Messines, his first major battle in June 1917.
William’s mother, Anna Averkoff, raised the entire family after his death, and three of his younger brothers served in the 2nd AIF.
Russian Anzacs