Robert Meerin

Born 19.10.1889     Place Riga, Latvia     Ethnic origin Latvian     Religion Church of England

Father Meerin, Joseph      Mother -

Arrived at Australia

            from Rotterdam, Holland     on 17.03.1909     per Irby       disembarked at Broadmount, Qld

Residence before enlistment Bundaberg, Mackay & Sydney

Occupation 1914 wharf-labourer, 1916 rigger

Service

service number 2845   enlisted 21.08.1916   POE Sydney

unit 3rd Pioneer Battalion, 3rd MG Battalion   rank Private

place Western Front, 1917-1919

discharged 12.05.1919 in London, enlisted at Middlesex regiment, the North Russian Relief Force as an interpreter

final fate RTA

Naturalisation 1914

Residence after the war Sydney

Wife Vera Meerin (née Byrne), married in 1928

Materials naturalisation (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

[...] five Russians enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment, mostly as interpreters, and served with the North Russian Relief Force: Alex Alexandroff, from Vladivostok (a former cook), Robert Meerin and Anthony Minkshlin, from the Baltic region (both former seamen), Ivan Odliff, from Nizhny Novgorod (a former boiler-maker), and Paul Smirnoff, a 19-year-old former miner from Vologda, northern Russia. Richard Gregorenko planned to join them but later changed his mind and returned to Australia. They arrived in Archangel in summer 1919 and fought against the pro-Bolshevik forces in the area until the final evacuation of Allied forces a year later. Minkshlin was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal for this campaign.

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