Abdul Ganivahoff

Russian spelling Абдул(ла) Ганивахов

Born 1886   Place Kazan, Russia  Ethnic origin Tatar    Religion Lutheran (?)

Arrived at Australia -

Residence before enlistment

Occupation sailor

Service

service number 1703   enlisted 18.02.1916   POE Melbourne

unit 2nd Pioneer Battalion; 19th Battalion   rank Private, Corporal

place Western Front, 1916-1917       casualties WIA 1916

final fate KIA 27.02.1917

memorial details 26 Villers Bretonneux, France

Naturalisation served as Russian subject

Materials digitised service records (NAA)

Roll of Honour card (AWM)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

In 1916 Abdul Ganivahoff, a Tatar man, came to enlist at the Melbourne Town Hall. He could barely speak English, and was enlisted by a young NCO in poor health called Henry Nicholson. This Tatar man was very obviously different, even from Slavonic Russians, let alone from Britishers, but he had been able to slip past the barrier of the White Australia policy because he had arrived in Australia as a Russian sailor. Henry Nicholson discovered that Abdul had ‘no living relatives or friends either in Russia or in this country’ and asked Abdul if he wanted Nicholson to be recorded as his friend in the ‘next of kin’ section. In spite of the briefness of their contact Nicholson never forgot his adopted Tatar ‘friend’. Upon making enquiries after the war, Nicholson was upset to learn that Abdul Ganivahoff had been killed in action in France, in early 1917.

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