Adolf Leopold Drager

Born 13.05.1892   Place Riga, Latvia    Ethnic origin German/Latvian    Religion Church of England

Father Drager, Randolf (Rendolf)     Mother Helena

Arrived at Australia

            from Russia via London   on 7.03.1911    per Otway     disembarked at Fremantle

Residence before enlistment Perth, Culham, Toodyay, WA

Occupation hairdresser, barber

Service

service number 3506   enlisted 27.09.1915   POE Perth

unit 28th Battalion, 51st Battalion   rank Private

place Western Front, 1916-1918      casualties WIA 1916, 1917, 1918 (left leg amputated)

final fate RTA 24.03.1919       discharged 20.07.1920

Naturalisation 1914

Residence after the war Fremantle

Family brothers Dreger Ernest Mikel, Frederick William

        wife Mary Ellen Drager (née Armstrong), married 1923

        children Shirley b.1926, Brian b.1931, Dalys b. 1936.

Other contacts in Australia August Maren

Died 14.02.1970

Materials naturalisation (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

Clarke, F. G., Will-o’-the-wisp. Peter the Painter and the anti-tsarist terrorists in Britain and Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1983.

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

Among other casualties [in spring 1918] there was Ernest Dreger’s brother, Adolf Leopold Drager, wounded for the third time: this time he lost his leg. His niece Elaine Dreger tells how she remembers her father Ernest and her Uncle Fred talking about her Uncle Dolph losing his leg: ‘As I recall, after the incident the medical team went through but Uncle Dolph was thought to be dead. On the third day the Salvation Army were still looking for survivors, and finding Dolph still alive brought him back. The leg had become fly blown but this was said to have saved his life because the maggots had eaten the rotten flesh and saved the wound from becoming gangrenous. Unfortunately, he had to be operated on three times so that finally he had a very high amputation.’

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