John Ivanoff

Alias Jack    Russian spelling Иван Иванович Иванов

Born 15.03.1892  Place Libava (Liepaja), Latvia   Ethnic origin Russian

Religion Roman Catholic (enlistment); C of E (embarkation roll)

Father Ivanoff, John      Mother Ivanoff, Maitf (?)

Residence before arrival at Australia left Libava ca1904

Arrived at Australia

            from America     on 15.05.1915      per Star of India      disembarked at Sydney

Residence before enlistment Sydney

Occupation 1915 fireman, 1925 coal lumper, 1940 machine man

Service

service number 1624   enlisted 9.06.1915 POE Liverpool, NSW

unit 20th Battalion   rank Private

place Gallipoli, 1915; Western Front, 1916-1918      casualties WIA 1917, 1918 (twice)

awards 8.05.1918 commended for excellent sniping work; 14.05.19 awarded MM

final fate RTA 14.12.1918       discharged 26.03.1919

Naturalisation 1925

Residence after the war Sydney, 1940 Berowa

Family wife Lillian Bessie Ivanoff (née Fox), married 1917 in England; children Lillian Violet, b. 1918 Plymouth, England, Ronald John, b. 1921, Reginald, b. 1929, George Victor, b. 1937 in Australia

WWII served 1940-1944, 16 Garrison Battalion

Died 09.1947

Materials naturalisation (NAA)

digitised WWI service records (NAA)

court martial records 1     2  (NAA)

digitised recommendation for award 1     2   (AWM)

digitised application for free passage of Lily Ivanoff and infant (NAA)

Investigation branch file (NAA)

WWII service records (NAA)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

 The court-martial of another Russian, John Ivanoff, is also interesting from the point of view of revealing how well Russians integrated in their units. It looks as if those Russians who were good at drinking mixed more easily with the Australians. Indeed, those who did not indulge in this habit, whether they were Russian intellectuals or Jewish tradesmen, sometimes found themselves ostracised, as we shall see further on with Felipov’s case. Needless to say, drinking was a social institution among Russians and Australians alike. It was especially prevalent among the Russians mainly because so many of them were seamen and unmarried men. John Ivanoff, an engineer’s son from Libava on the Baltic Sea, left his hometown when he was about 12 years old and worked on ships all over the world as a fireman. He came to Australia in May 1915, enlisted in the army and in August was already at Gallipoli. He contracted jaundice there and was evacuated to Malta several months later. In January 1916 he was reunited with his battalion (20th) in Egypt, at that time being the only ethnic Russian in it. On 29 February 1916 at a court-martial he was charged with ‘assault with violence’, in stabbing Private J.J. Kelly ‘with a sharp instrument’. Ivanoff’s statement is worth citing at length. He describes how one night ‘I went into Cairo — I went to the theatre and had two glasses of beer there and got back to Camp about 9.30 pm. I was quite sober then. I brought a bottle of whisky back with me to shout my mates with. I as not drink whisky myself. I gave a mate named Dadfield a drink, I then met McCahe and gave him a drink, after that I went to the Cookhouse to shout the cooks. … I gave some of the cooks a drink and left the remainder of the bottle of whisky there. I do not remember much after this except I remember my head burning giddy.’ Ivanoff was found guilty and given a 12-month sentence; the court, however, making ‘a recommendation to mercy on the ground that the offence was committed during a drunken brawl and without premeditation’, remitted nine months of his sentence. It is interesting that there is no reference here to Ivanoff’s Russian origin at all; both by the court and by his comrades he is treated the same as any rowdy Australian would be. [...] Ivanoff ended the war a hero, fitting perfectly the Anzac mould.

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