Russian Anzacs

Simon Sutchkoff, a well-educated Belarusian school teacher, was sentenced to Siberia as a political prisoner. He escaped to Australia in 1912, and worked as a labourer all over Queensland for three years before settling in Edith Creek in north-west Tasmania, where he engaged in farming.
With the 47th Battalion he arrived on the Western Front, but was taken prisoner of war a month later, at the battle for Dernancourt in April 1918.
After the war he was repatriated to Australia. He continued farming, often contributing letters to the editor of the local newspaper on social and political issues.

Charles Gross, a Finnish seaman, came to Newcastle in 1896 and lived on the Central NSW coast, working as a labourer and timber cutter.
Enlisting in the AIF in Macksville, NSW, he served in the Field Ambulance on the Western Front.
After the war he married Mary Sherriff and farmed in Congarinni, NSW.

John Woronsoff, a sailor from Nizhni Tagil in Russia, came to Melbourne in 1907 and settled at Waurn Ponds in Victoria. He worked as a teamster and later started farming.
He served with the 21st Battalion on the Western Front. A month after his arrival on the front, in September 1917, he was killed at the battle for Menin Road.
His family in Russia was never found, but his Australian friends commemorated his death in the newspaper for several years.

Ivar Willgren, a Finnish fireman from Vyborg, came to Australia in early 1916 and enlisted in the AIF in Dubbo.
He came to England with the 3rd Battalion, but fell ill and was returned to Australia as medically unfit.
After the war he lived in Orange and got into trouble with the Australian security forces as an enemy alien during WWII.