Vaina Tamppinen, a Finn from Helsingfors (Helsinki), came to Queensland as a baby with his parents, the followers of Matti Kurikka, in 1900. His father died soon after the arrival and his mother remarried. By the time of his enlistment in the AIF he was farming in Nambour in Queensland.
In November 1917, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the AIF in Brisbane. With the reinforcements to the 31st Battalion he reached the Western Front in October 1918 and stayed there for the next nine months, working after the Armistice in the Australian Graves detachment.
After the war he married Lillian Grace Edith May Krosch, and lived in Nambour working as a carter, labourer and shopkeeper. He also conducted work for the local RSL.
Emil Kaipanen, a Finnish seaman from Helsingfors (Helsinki), came to Australia in 1908 and worked as a sailor on the ships.
Enlisting in the AIF in Sydney, he reached the Western Front with the 35th Battalion in July 1918. A few days after his arrival to the front, he was wounded to the right arm and evacuated to England.
After the war he returned to Australia and was working on the missionary ship ‘John Williams’. In 1920 he naturalised, but soon after that disappears from the Australian records. It is quite likely that he died in England in 1924.
George Doobrofsky, a Russian from Petrograd, arrived at Australia as a sailor in November 1917 from California, where he had registered for army service.
Enlisting in the AIF in Sydney, a week after his arrival, he sailed to England with the 1st Pioneers Battalion, but reached the Western Front only after the Armistice.
After the war he continued working as a seaman and labourer, occasionally getting in trouble with the law; in the 1930s he was suspected to be a Communist.
Harry Isaacs, a Jewish man from Jakobstadt (Jekabpils) in Latvia, spent several years in Argentina and England before coming to Australia. In 1912 he came to Australia with his wife, Minnie, and settled in Melbourne, where he worked as a hair dresser and hawker.
Enlisting in the AIF in November 1917 in secret from his wife, he was discharged three weeks later because his wife was in ill health.
After the war he lived with his growing family in Melbourne, visiting South Africa, where their relatives lived. During WWII he joined the AIF again and served as a batman in Kantara in Greece.
John Halin, a Finnish rigger from Abo (Turku), came to Australia in 1908 and worked on the ships, being based in Port Adelaide and Newcastle.
He enlisted in the AIF in Newcastle in November 1917, but was discharged soon afterwards.
In 1920 he left for the USA, where he continued working in his occupation of a rigger. In 1925 he married a Finnish woman Ruth and settled in California. During WWII he registered for US Army service.
Russian Anzacs