Alexander Petroff

Russian spelling Александр Иванович Петров

Born 23.04.1880     Place St Petersburg, North-Western Russia     Ethnic origin Russian     Religion Church of England

Father Petroff, John     Mother Petroff, Alexandra Vasilevna

Residence before arrival at Australia served in the Russian Red Cross at Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese war; fled Russia as a political offender

Arrived at Australia

            from Colombo     on 2.03.1909     per Bremen     disembarked at Fremantle, WA

Residence before enlistment Dowerin, Karridale, Perth, Jarrahwood, Collie, visited Colombo, Korrelocking, Ballidu, WA

Occupation 1913 timber worker, 1915 contactor, 1918-21 farmer, 1940 employee

Service

service number 2360     enlisted 25.11.1915     POE

unit Mining Corps, 3rd Tunnelling Company       rank Sapper

place Western Front, 1916-1917

final fate RTA 21.12.1917       discharged 2.08.1918 MU

WWI contacts John Pavelkin

Naturalisation 1921

Residence after the war Fremantle, Tenindewa near Mullewa, WA, 1940 Mt Isa, Qld; 1960 Wondai Hospital, Wondai, Qld (?)

Family brother Jack Petroff in Australia; married 1923 in WA

Materials naturalisation 1     2  (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

alien registration (NAA)

Investigation Branch file (NAA)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

When Alexander Petroff, a political émigré who had served with the tunnellers on the Western Front, applied for naturalisation in 1920, he was rejected. The reason was his letter to an Estonian labourer Johannes Hunt, at Southern Cross, Western Australia, in which he wrote: ‘I do not think you are an Esthonian, Russian or German, but I think you are an International Worker, and the last-named I am absolutely certain is your correct name. … Bolsheviki … are fighting for freedom, and who are they who want to kill that Freedom? There is no other reply [but] “The Capitalists”.’ That kind of rhetoric was enough for the director of the Investigation branch, Major Harold Jones, to hold over his application. Luckily, a year later a local policeman from Mullewa, Western Australia, where Petroff and his brother had a farm, came to the following conclusion: ‘I am of the opinion that if Alex Petroff had extreme views whilst working for wages, now that he is a land owner and an employer of labour his views have altered with his different standpoint’. Such ‘re-education’ through the benefits of the capitalist system finally persuaded Major Jones to grant Petroff his naturalisation.

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