Peter Johnson

Alias August Maren (true name)     Russian spelling Август Марен

Born 18.03.1885     Place Kuldiga, Latvia     Ethnic origin Latvian     Religion Russian Orthodox

Residence before arrival at Australia lived in London, was involved in Latvian political organisation ‘Leesma’

Arrived at Australia with Dreger brothers and Sarah Ligum

            from London      on 7.03.1911     per Otway      disembarked at Fremantle, WA

Residence before enlistment Northam district & Perth

Occupation in Latvia: schoolteacher, 1913 traveller, 1916 amalgamator

Service

service number 5417   enlisted 14.01.1916   POE Blackboy Hill, WA

unit 11th Battalion, 51st Battalion   rank Private, Lance Corporal

place Western Front, 1916-1918      casualties WIA 1918

final fate RTA 4.06.1919       discharged 30.08.1919

Naturalisation 1913

Residence after the war

Died 03.1929 in a traffic accident in Sydney

Materials naturalisation (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

F.G. Clarke, 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:

August Maren was [a] teacher who took up revolutionary activities in Latvia and wound up on active service in the AIF. He spent two years in a Latvian prison before moving to London, in 1909, where he was involved with the Latvian terrorist group Leesma, headed by Peter the Painter (Janis Jacklis). Leesma’s group murdered three London policemen in the winter of 1910, which led to the sensational 1911 ‘Siege of Sidney Street’. Maren fled England for Western Australia, having been nominated as a migrant by his friend Ernest Dreger; he travelled out together with Dreger’s brothers Frederick and Adolf from Latvia and Ernest’s fiancée, Sarah Ligum, an 18-year-old Latvian Jewish woman whom Ernest had met in London. According to local police reports, tensions subsequently arose between Maren and Ernest Dreger over young Sarah, while they were working at a farm in Kellerberrin, Western Australia.

    Dreger’s daughter Elaine has a different version of events, however, claiming that at this time Ernest came into contact with some politically radical Latvians. ‘Because he didn’t agree with their views and so became a danger to them, they sought to rid themselves of him by selling him a gun that they had stolen and then informing the police. Although Ernest protested his innocence, he was gaoled at Rottnest Island prison for 3 months.’

    In prison, an embittered Dreger told Australian authorities about Maren’s connection with Leesma and Maren was arrested, amid rumours that he was the elusive Peter the Painter. Maren defended himself determinedly, and after a few months had to be released for lack of evidence. Assuming a new name, Peter Johnson, he put his past behind him, later dying in a traffic accident in Sydney in 1929.

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