Armistice Day 1918

Earlier posts on this blog have outlined the stories of the first-generation 'Lithuanian Anzacs', men of various ethnicities who had been born in czarist Russia within the borders of present-day Lithuania in the late 19th century and who served with the First AIF (Australian Imperial Force) during World War I. As we approach the centenary of the end of that war, I thought it would be interesting to look back at where some of them were on Armistice Day 1918.

By the end of the European summer in 1918 it was becoming clear that the Great War was coming to an end and that the Central Powers were near defeat. An armistice with Bulgaria came into effect on 30 September 1918, followed by Turkey a month later, then Austria-Hungary on 3 November and finally Germany on 11 November. Nevertheless, the fighting continued on the Western Front right up until the 11th of November. Reports from the field record an abrupt end to the bombardment at 11am and an eerie sense of numbness, exhaustion and quiet on the front lines. In contrast, celebrations had started earlier in the day in many towns and cities across the world, later followed by bonfires and fireworks near some of the front lines that evening.

Martin Place, Sydney, 11 November 1918

 Lithuanian Anzacs on 11 November 1918

At least 40 'Lithuanian Anzacs' served overseas during World War I and nearly half this number were still in Europe at the end of the war.  Many of their stories have been outlined previously (click on their names below). A summary was also posted earlier [click here].

The longest-serving were Stanislaw Urniarz (Stasys Urniežius) and Militan Schatkowski (also known as Militan Oldham) who had both enlisted four years earlier, in November 1914. On Armistice Day 1918 Private Urniarz was still in the field in northern France, working at the 2nd Australian General Hospital; soon after he was permitted to proceed on furlough to the UK. Private Schatkowski/Oldham had already been in the UK since early 1917 and was working for the Australian Red Cross in London on Armistice Day.

Several of the Lithuanian Anzacs had been wounded on the Western Front and transferred to England by November 1918. Private William Frank Jaks was severely wounded in September and invalided to England; he met Armistice Day at the Reading War Hospital. Private Gerard Skugar, wounded in August, was at the Devonport Military Hospital (Plymouth). Private Leo Gordon was wounded in action for the second time in October and was at the 1st Auxillary Hospital at Harefield on Armistice Day. Private Paul Finn, wounded in action for the third time in August, was in medical repatriation in England. Others in England for medical reasons included privates Harry Cooper, Joe Caplan, Anthony Januski and sapper Ishai Belkind.

Some had suffered wounds but were still active combatants in the field as Armistice Day dawned, including Private Heyman Wolfson (enlisted in 1915, wounded in 1916).

A few were fortunate to meet Armistice Day in the field and to have survived the war without apparent major injury, including: Corporal Emerick Schimkovitch (enlisted in January 1916, in the field in France from October 1916); Private William Kalinowsky/Kalin/Kalinauskas (enlisted September 1916, in the field from December 1917); Driver Joe Ipp (enlisted February 1917, in the field from November 1917); Private Stanley Zygas/Stasys Žygas (enlisted September 1917, in the field from April 1918).

Still others had enlisted late in the war and had been sent overseas but not yet entered the field of battle. David Wishman enlisted in May 1918, disembarked at London at the end of September as a private with the 34th Bn and and was still in the UK on Armistice Day. 


And lastly, there were those who did not survive the war and could not return home. Six men were killed in action or died from wounds received in action:

• Charles Oscar Zander (died 22 August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, France, no known grave, commemorated at Villers-Bretonneux);
• John Brenka/Brenke (died 23 August 1916 in the Battle of the Somme, France, buried at Boulogne East Cemetery);
• Anthony Puris (died 10 May 1917 in the Somme, France, buried in the vicinity of Noreuil, no known grave, commemorated at Villers-Bretonneux); 
• John Lovriaen (died 20 September 1917 in the Ypres campaign, Belgium, place of burial unknown);
• Franc Matzonas; (died 11 November 1917 in the battles for Beersheba, Palestine, buried at Beersheba War Cemetery (Israel)); and
• David Minor (died 11 May 1918 in northern France, buried at Meteren Military Cemetery).

https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/armistice/62000-Poppies-Display
Handcrafted red poppy flowers on the Australian War Memorial's grounds representing the almost 62,000 Australians who lost their lives during the First World War.

  





  

Queensland #1

Migrants with origins in Lithuania started settling in Queensland in the second half of the nineteenth century.  However it was not until after World War 2 that larger numbers were located there; for example, several hundred Lithuanian DPs (displaced persons) were brought to Queensland in 1948 and 1949 to cut sugar cane.  While most of these workers did not stay on the cane fields for longer than required, some settled further south and helped establish a Lithuanian community in Brisbane.

Probably one of the earliest migrants was Lewis FLEGELTAUB.  Born in the Suvalkija region in a Jewish family, he became a successful Australian businessman and died in Brisbane in 1897.  Trove and Ancestry.com contain more details of the Flegeltaub family.

Previous posts have noted men with origins in Lithuania who enlisted in Queensland during World War I:

• P. KALINAUSKAS/ William KALINOVSKY/KALIN from Žagarė who enlisted at Cloncurry and served on the Western Front.  After the war he eventually settled in Brisbane and died there in 1937;
• Sigismund ROMASZKIEWICZ, a Russian Pole from Krekenava who enlisted in Brisbane and also served on the Western Front.  He lived in Brisbane until his death in 1949;
• Gerard SKUGAR, a Pole from Vilnius, who enlisted at Rockhampton and also served on the Western Front.  

In addition the following Queensland ANZACS who are listed on the russiananzacs.net site appear likely to have had Lithuanian origins:

• Jack/Ivan TRINKOON (TRINKŪNAS?) from Brisbane.  Although born in Riga (Latvia), his service records show that his father was from Vilnius;
• Charles Anton GEDGAWD (GEDGAUDAS?) from Charters Towers, born in Libau/Liepaja (Latvia) is associated with very Lithuanian names; his mother Domicelė referred to him as Kasimir (Kazimieras). 

The interwar years saw small numbers settling in Brisbane and regional Queensland.  In contrast to other Australian ports, arrivals at Brisbane often came from China or the Russian Far East.  Most of these settlers had Jewish, Polish, Russian or Prussian heritage, for example:

• Chane MILERIS, known as Noel Miller, had arrived in 1930 as a Lithuanian national and was living in Brisbane in 1938;
• Abraham WEINER/Alfred WYNER, a Lithuanian national born in Courland (Latvia) arrived in Australia around 1913 and was living in Brisbane in 1939;
• Jan/John DAPKEWITCH from Vilkaviškis had married in Harbin, China, in 1905. He died in Ipswich in 1941 aged 63;
• Josephine RUCKMAN, a Polish widow from Kaunas with Lithuanian citizenship, arrived in Brisbane on the Yoshina Maru in 1923 with her two sons John and Felix and daughter-in-law Klara in 1943, aged 77, she was living in Mackay and one son was farming at Alligator Creek near Mackay;
• Anton YUSKAN (from Lithuania but birth location not stated) married in Proserpine and died there in 1973 aged 84;
• Veniamin SAMOLLOFF, a Lithuanian national from Kaunas, had arrived around 1925 and was living at Victoria Point, near Brisbane, in 1932;
• Bruno GREITSCHUS, a Lithuanian national from Memel (Klaipėda), had arrived around 1925 and was working at Goolburra Station, Offham Siding (western Queensland) in 1937;
• Frederich WEDRAT, also from Memel, had arrived in 1910 and was living at Chinchilla when he died in 1963, aged 73.

The 1933 Australian Census recorded 12 males and 3 females who had been born in Lithuania and were then living in Queensland; 4 of the men were living in 'tropical Queensland'.

Prior to World War 2 there was only a handful of ethnic Lithuanians living in Queensland at any one time.  Metrastis No. 1 (p10) records that Edward Charles PHILLULE (PILIULIS) wrote in 1938 that there had been five Lithuanians in Brisbane but two had died, one had returned to Lithuania, and there there were only two left.  The other Lithuanian referred to in that correspondence was probably RUZGYS (Australian Lithuanians, p25).

The first significant influx of Lithuanians to Queensland occurred in 1940 when 30 Lithuanian refugees with British citizenship arrived from Vladivostok aboard the Haitan.

Next week's post will look at one of the few ethnic Lithuanians living in Queensland at that time, E. C. Phillule. 

More Anzacs from Lithuania who served on the Western Front and in Australia

Previous posts have covered what we know so far about the ethnic Lithuanians and the Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews) who served for Australia on the Western Front in the First World War.  Here are a few more men with origins in Lithuania who served abroad (Schatkowski and Zander were previously featured in the post on Gallipoli).  Again, with thanks to the National Australian Archives and Elena Govor's Russian Anzacs project (http://russiananzacs.net/):

Anthony JANUSKI/JANONSKOV/JANWSKO was born in Kaunas in 1896 to a Polish family.  He enlisted in Melbourne in July 1916 and served on the Western Front as a private in the 58th Battalion.  He was severely wounded in action in France (June 1918) and returned to Australia in early 1920.

Sigismund ROMASZKIEWICZ was born in Krekenava in 1876  to a Polish/Russian family and arrived in Brisbane from Japan with his wife and children in 1910.  They settled in Brisbane, where he was active in both the Russian and Polish communities.  He enlisted in October 1915 as a 39 year old and served as a driver with the 15th Field Company Engineers, was wounded in action in France in 1917 and medically discharged in Australia in 1918.  He died in Brisbane in 1949.

Militan SCHATKOWSKI (also known as Oldham) enlisted in Liverpool NSW in November 1914. He was born at Plateliai, possibly of Polish and/or German heritage, and had arrived in Australia in 1914 as a seaman having already lived in the British Empire from 1908. He served at Gallipoli as a private in the 2nd Battalion, and later on the Western Front. He ended the war attached to the Australian Red Cross in London 1917-19, where he also married and was naturalised as a British subject before returning to Australia. He took his wife's surname, OLDHAM, and died in Sydney in 1938.   

Emerick SCHIMKOVITCH (also Shimkovitch) was born in Zarasai in 1894 to a Russian or Polish family.  He left Lithuania around 1911, worked as a seaman, and reached Australia in January 1916, enlisting that same month in Melbourne.  Emerick served as a private and corporal in the 22nd Battalion in France and was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in action in August 1918.  He returned to Australia after the war and continued to work as a seaman, based in Victoria.  He worked for a while at the Cape Schank lighthouse, married in 1936 and died in 1951.  The Australian War Memorial's collection includes a group photo of 22nd Battalion's A Company, including Emerick Schimkovitch (click here).

Gerard Martyn SKUGAR, a 22 year old Polish sailor from Vilnius, enlisted in Rockhampton in May 1916. He had arrived in Sydney in February 1914 and then worked at several locations in Queensland (Brisbane, Mt Morgan, Rockhampton, Bundaberg) before enlisting. He served as a private with the 41st Bn in France and was wounded in action in August 1918, repatriated to England and then to Australia in December 1918.  Awarded a Military Medal for bravery in the field, he lived in Queensland after the war and died in Sydney in 1951.

Charles Oscar ZANDER enlisted in Adelaide at the outbreak of war in August 1914. Born near Vilnius, probably of German heritage (his parents were naturalised Russian subjects), he became a seaman and lived for some time in England where he became a naturalised British subject. He arrived at Port Adelaide around 1911 and was a member of the first Australian contingent to depart for the Middle East in November 1914; he served at Gallipoli as a private in the 10th Battalion, and later as a corporal on the Western Front. He married in London while on leave in 1916 but was killed in action in France on 22 August 1916. Charles' service is commemorated at the Australian War Memorial, the Adelaide War Memorial and the Villers-Brettoneux memorial in France.


This brings to a close this list of Anzacs with Lithuanian connections who served overseas.  It has largely mirrored the list created by Elena Govor on her Russian Anzacs website, with only a few added details of the individuals concerned.  Nevertheless, over time the list may be expanded as others are discovered hidden in the official records:

About 65,000 men [from Australia, in World War I] used an alias or at least an incomplete name, or saw service with an Allied entity (Lieutenant Colonel Neil C Smith, That Elusive Digger: tracing your Australian military ancestors, Unlock the Past, 2013)

Some men enlisted but were not sent overseas, for example:

Thomas DAMELIONOK, born in 1888 in Vilnius, had arrived in Australia in April 1914 with his wife and children and enlisted for home service in Melbourne in August 1916, but was discharged at the end of that year as his services were no longer required.

William KOSLOVSKY, born in 1882 in Joniškis, arrived in Brisbane in 1912 and enlisted at Rockhampton in November 1915 but was discharged in August 1916 as medically unfit.

Antonio SAMSON, born in 1873 in Kurkliai, arrived in Sydney in June 1917 and enlisted in November of that year. He was 44 years old and a solid labourer, 6 foot tall and 212 lb in weight, but after less than 2 months at the Engineer Depot in Moore Park, Sydney, was dischaged as 'unlikely to become an efficient soldier'.


Anton SUTKIS, born in 1890 at the village of Sutkai, near Šakiai, arrived in Australia as a sailor in 1912, worked as a miner near Sydney and enlisted at Liverpool NSW in January 1916.  Sadly Anton/Antanas did not even see much depot service as he died in August 1916 of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Bronislau KETOVICH/KRETOVITCH, born in 1889 in Vilnius, probably to a Polish/Russian family, arrived in Brisbane in 1911 from Harbin, China, leaving behind a wife, Vida.  He was employed as an engine fitter in Brisbane and Melbourne where he enlisted in June 1916, but 2 weeks later was discharged as medically unfit.


Others were sent overseas but were soon found unsuitable for active service:

Adolph Conrad CANTOR, born in 1876 in Žagarė, had resided in the USA from 1889 and arrived in Australia in 1902. He was a draper and lived at Devonport, Tasmania, then Hamilton and Warnambool in Victoria before enlisting at Warnambool at the age of 39. Sent overseas as a private with the 14th Bn he was discharged in London after a year's service as medically unfit.

Peter SREBEL, born in 1870 in Vilnius, arrived in Brisbane in March 1914 with his wife and child. He enlisted as a 44 year old the next year and was sent overseas as a private with the 25th Bn but only reached Fremantle before being sent back and discharged as medically unfit. Peter continued to work around Queensland for the next several years but returned to Lithuania in 1921.

Samuel SEUFF, born to a Jewish family in 1888 in Šiauliai, first enlisted in January 1915 but was discharged after only a few days. He enlisted again in December 1916 and was sent overseas in early 1917 as a private with the 45th Bn only to be returned to Australia almost immediately and discharged in June 1917 as medically unfit. 



Still others decided to cut short their military service for other reasons:

Joseph BUDREWICZ, born in Radviliškis in 1892, arrived at Darwin in 1915 and enlisted in Perth in June 1916; however by the end of September 1916 he was listed as a deserter.

Phillip JAFFE, born in Kaunas in 1894, had served in the South African Army before arriving in Australia in 1915.  He enlisted at Holdsworthy NSW in August 1915 but by December of that year was listed as a deserter.



Next week's post will attempt to summarise the 'Lithuanian Anzac' experience, at least from the Australian perspective.  No one, as far as I know, has researched any New Zealand/Lithuanian Anzac connections.

100 years ago

What was happening in Europe?

By 1915 the Lithuanian lands had been under rigid Russian domination for 120 years, as a consequence of the final partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. Despite some reforms in the early twentieth century, such as the lifting of the ban on the use of the Lithuanian language in education and on publications using the latin alphabet (1904), czarist rule continued to be repressive. It was only amidst the confusion of the First World War that the first high school with tuition in the Lithuanian language was allowed to be established in Vilnius (1915). The war facilitated the fall of the Russian empire, following which an independent Lithuanian state was established in 1918.    

Russian WWI propaganda poster

Despite initial Russian successes against the Central Powers early in the First World War, by late 1915 the German army had pushed the Russian forces out of Warsaw, Kaunas and Vilnius.  While the stalemate of trench warfare was avoided on the more fluid Eastern front, there were huge military losses and population displacements. In addition to the withdrawal of industry and business into 'mother Russia' ahead of the German advance, Russian military commanders often perceived the minorities living on the western fringes of the empire - such as the Lithuanians, Jews and Poles - as a threat and forcibly deported many to the Russian interior. There may have been 5 or 6 million such refugees; my father was born to such a family in Russia.  

What was happening in Australia?

The events of World War One also take centre stage in Australian history, in particular the Anzacs' landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The aim of the Allied Powers was to seize Constantinople and establish direct contact with the Russian forces. Unfortunately the Turks were waiting at Gallipoli and the plan ended in tragedy, with a forced withdrawal in December 1915.

Australian WWI propaganda poster

By 1915 the Australian population had reached almost 5 million, having increased from 3 million in the late 1880s. Domestic support for immigration from the British Isles had been strong in the early part of the twentieth century, in keeping with the new federation's strong identification with the British Empire, but the war put a halt to further large migrant intakes. At the same time, domestic antagonism to non-British foreigners and aliens also increased; people of German heritage in particular became targets.  1915 also saw the introduction of a federal income tax proposed, at least initially, to support the war effort.

There were possibly a few hundred Lithuanians already living in most states of Australia in 1915. Some were single men, some had brought families with them from overseas, others had established families here:

• Antanas (Antoni) Alanskas originally from Suvalkija had settled in Western Australia with his wife Ieva/Eva and three young children who had been born in Glasgow during the family's 9 years in Scotland;
• Jonas Balaika, a single man from near Marijampolė, had settled in Sydney having previously lived for 5 years in England and 2 years in Canada;
• Joe Ipp, a Jew from Kaunas who had lived in South Africa for 3 years had arrived in Melbourne in 1914;
• Gerard Skugar, a Pole from Vilnius, arrived in Sydney in 1914 and worked at various locations in Queensland including Brisbane, Mt Morgan and Rockhampton before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF);
• William Suscavage (?Šuškevičius) from Vilkaviškis arrived around 1914 and settled in Tasmania.   

Despite the war, some people were still able to reach Australia during 1915, for example:

• Adolfas Miškinis (known as Adolph Mishkinis) who had been born in 1889 near Zarasai, arrived in the USA from Libau (now Liepoja, Latvia) in 1910 and became a naturalised US citizen in 1914.  He reached Melbourne in September 1915 as a sailor on an American ship and decided to stay, enlisting in the AIF in November 1915.  He was sent to fight overseas in January 1916; 
• Isadore Solomon Cohen, born in Šakiai in 1890, arrived in Sydney in June 1915, married there in 1916 and settled in New South Wales. Before arriving in Australia he had lived in England from 1903 and in North America from 1909.