Joseph Kleshenko
Alias Joseph Noyland, Joseph Klinetinko, Joe Klestenko Russian spelling Иосиф Клешенко
Born 28.12.1892 Place Dubno, Volyn, Ukraine Ethnic origin Ukrainian Religion Roman Catholic
Father Kleshenko, Venel (?) Mother -
Arrived at Australia
from San-Francisco on 20.07.1912 per Kokou disembarked at Sydney
Residence before enlistment Sydney
Occupation 1914, 1915 engineer, sailor, 1916 mechanic, 1925 seaman
Service 1 (as Joseph Noyland, signature - Noyman))
service number 574 enlisted 30.11.1914 POE Holdsworthy, NSW
unit 6th Light Horse Regiment rank Private
place Depot discharged no data
Service 2 (as Joseph Klinetinko)
service number enlisted 27.01.1915 POE Liverpool, NSW
rank Private place Depot
discharged 9.02.1915
Service 3 (as Joe Klestenko)
service number 1140 enlisted 8.06.1915 POE Melbourne
rank Private place Depot
discharged 08.1915
Service 4 (as Joseph Kleshenko)
service number enlisted 27.08.1915 POE Holsworthy, NSW
rank Private place Depot
discharged 7.09.1915 unfit for active service
Service 5
service number enlisted 8.11.1915 POE Sydney
rank Private place Depot
discharged 14.12.1915 unlikely to become an efficient soldier
Service 6
service number 5795 enlisted 12.01.1916 POE Goulburn, NSW
unit 1st Battalion rank Private place Depot
final fate RTA from Durban 7.09.1916 discharged 29.09.1916, services no longer required
Service 7
service number 4405 enlisted 18.10.1916 POE Sydney
unit 29th Battalion rank Private
place England, 1917
final fate RTA 10.01.1918 discharged 8.06.1918 MU
Naturalisation 1918
Residence after the war Sydney
Wife Ethel Kleshenko, married in 1917
Materials naturalisation (NAA)
digitised service records (NAA) (Noyland, service 1)
digitised service records (NAA) (Klinetinko, service 2)
digitised service records (NAA) (Kleshenko, service 3-7)
Free passage Ethel Kleshenko (NAA)
From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:
There were some, too, with questionable military careers. Joseph Kleshenko claimed not only to have served in the Russian army but also in the American army for nine months, and even alleged that a bullet wound in his ankle was received during the Russo-Japanese war. This seems unlikely as he was born in 1892; later, in any case, it turned into a ‘Gallipoli wound’ (and he certainly wasn’t there). An obvious adventurer and troublemaker, he enlisted in the AIF no less than seven times.
[...] Russians were not always able to obtain even [...] hard work on the waterfront. In October 1919 Cezar Wolkowsky, ‘a Russian, who served with the A.I.F., informed the Minister in Sydney that he and about a dozen other Russians, returned A.I.F. men, had been refused work on the wharves by the Shipping Companies, ostensibly because the Companies’ policy was to give preference to Australians’, according to a Repatriation Department memorandum. In November that year Joseph Kleshenko appealed directly to W.M. Hughes, the prime minister over the same issue.
Dear Sir,
I was speaking to you on the wagon at Sussex St and you asked me to write my case. I am a British subject born in Russia. Eleven other Russians and myself — all who are discharged soldiers who have fought with the A.I.F.
We had a disc at the Returned Soldiers … and had them taken from us at a moment’s notice without the slightest reason.
We tried to find out why it was that we should have the bread and butter [taken] from us, but could get no satisfaction. We were told that so many Australians were out of work and we were taking the work from them.
The majority of us are married men [with] Australian wives and children, and is it fair to us who have fought for England’s King and Country just the same as any Australian man and we carry the scars of battle just the same as any Australian to be put out of work because we are born in Russia.
Our Australian wives have to suffer, also our children. There is nothing else for the wives to do but go to work and keep the home going the best she can.
I would [like] you to do something for us. We can get no one to listen to us. Because we are Russians. But Mr W. Hughes has never been known to turn the diggers down. So we feel sure you will try and help us.
I remain Yours
Faithfully
Joseph Kleshenko
The Repatriation Department deputy-comptroller investigating the case provided the following explanation: ‘The Russians are reported to me by the Secretary of the Shipping Labour Bureau as being distinctly undesirable, and the cause of considerable trouble through their Bolshevik tendencies which are continually canvassed amongst the wharf labourers’. Clearly, employers were taking advantage of the jingoistic attitudes of some Australian workers when, in order to rid themselves of any threat of a ‘Red menace’, they singled out Russians for the sack under the pretence that the Russians were taking jobs from Australians. There is some suggestion that the Repatriation Department may have then contemplated offering the Russians free passage back to Russia and that some, at least, of them were sounded out over the idea but nothing came of it. When the bolshevik scare settled down, some Russians returned to the waterfront; others moved elsewhere.
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