Nicholas Tupicoff

Russian spelling Николай Васильевич Тупиков

Born 22.07.1893     Place Perekopnoe, Samara, Volga River area, Russia     Ethnic origin Russian     Religion Russian Orthodox

Father Tupicoff, Vasily     Mother -

Residence before arrival at Australia lived in Manchuria for 12 years, studied at Commercial High School, worked as Chinese interpreter, could speak Chinese, Russian, German, Polish and English.

Brother Alexis Tupikoff

Arrived at Australia

            from Japan     on 10.11.1912     per Yawata Maru     disembarked at Brisbane

Residence before enlistment various places in Qld, Rockhampton

Occupation 1912 clerk; 1915-16 labourer, 1921 farmer, fitter

Service 1

service number 2513     enlisted 14.12.1915     POE Rockhampton, Qld

rank Private     place Depot

discharged 6.03.1916 MU

Service 2

service number 2513     enlisted 22.06.1916     POE Brisbane

unit 47th Battalion, 49th Battalion       rank Private

place Western Front, 1917-1918       casualties WIA 1918

final fate RTA 9.12.1918       discharged 25.03.1919

Naturalisation 1922

Residence after the war Ipswich, Coominya, Ipswich, Qld

Family wife Alexandra Tupicoff (née Muller), married 1919, children Richard Nicholas b. 1920, Lenard b. 1922, Frank b. 1924, Douglas b. 1926, Joan b. 1928, Olga b. 1930

Died 30.11.1976

Materials naturalisation (NAA)

digitised service records (NAA)

alien registration (NAA)

wife's alien registration (NAA)

Alexandra Tupicoff, A family history, 1985 - Alan Tupicoff's archives, Brisbane

Nicholas Tupicoff [by his children] - Alan Tupicoff's archives, Brisbane

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

Some family members met up in Australia, later enlisting together in the AIF — like the Tupicoff brothers, Nicholas (whom we encountered earlier on the trans-Siberian, escaping conscription) and Alexis. Nicholas had been brought up by his well-to-do stepfather in Harbin, and had already begun work there as a Chinese interpreter with an American company: ‘He could speak Chinese, Russian, German, Polish and English. He worked, lived, and dressed as a Chinaman …’. Arriving in Brisbane in 1912, Nicholas found work labouring on the railways and also, using his languages, as a shipping clerk meeting the boats in Brisbane. ‘He did not like the work on the railway line and decided to go back to Russia. He came down to Brisbane to send a letter to Alec [his brother Alexis] and went to meet a boat and found Alec on that boat.’ So, instead of returning to Russia, where both their parents were now dead, the brothers remained together, finding rural work in Queensland until they enlisted.

    [...] The only way some Russians, especially those with families, could survive was by supplementing their wages with back-yard ‘farming’ and Nicholas Tupicoff’s story, as told by his family, is a good example of this. After the Tupicoff brothers walked off their blocks at Coominya soldiers’ settlement, Alexis moved to the Atherton Tablelands and worked in the timber industry there. Meanwhile, in 1919, Nicholas had married Alexandra Muller, who was from a Russian German family that had migrated to Australia before the war; by 1930 they had six children. Alexandra had two years of schooling in Australia, as she relates in the family history: ‘I left school when I was 14. There was nothing else I could do, so I did domestic work. This hurt Father, that a daughter of his had to be a servant when he had always had servants working for him.’ Nicholas, on the other hand, ‘was educated but he spent most of his life as a blacksmith striker; that was the only job he could get’. They settled in Ipswich (Queensland), where Nicholas went back to working in railway workshops, and in 1932 bought a house in Hopetoun Street. [...]

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