Peter Wiselenski

Alias Wishkenlski, Pete (WWI service records)     Russian spelling Петр Адамович Виселенский

Born 6.12.1894     Place Slonim, Grodno, Belarus     Ethnic origin Byelorussian     Religion Russian Orthodox (WWI); Church of England (WWII)

Father Wiselenski, Adam     Mother -

Residence before arrival at Australia lived in USA in 1912-1917

Arrived at Australia

            from USA     on 10.07.1917     per Canadian sailing vessel     disembarked at Brisbane

Residence before enlistment Brisbane

Occupation 1917 labourer, after the war - farmer

Service

service number 7815     enlisted 17.07.1917     POE Brisbane

unit 2nd Tunnelling Coy       rank Sapper

place Western Front, 1918

final fate RTA 7.02.1919      discharged 23.04.1919

Naturalisation 1940

Residence after the war Red Cliffs & Werribee Research Farm, Vic. till 1938; 1942 Swan Reach, Vic.

Family wife Mary Eliza Wiselenski (?), married 1919; children Kelvin (Peter Kelvin) b.1922, Margaret b.1928, Phillip Jones b.1930, Pauline b.1932

WWII served 1942-1943 13 Bn VDC

Materials naturalisation (NAA) (Wiselenski)

digitised WWI service records (NAA) (Pete Wishkenlski)

WWII service records (NAA) (Wiselenski)

alien registration (NAA) (Wiselenski)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

I encountered real vigilance in only a few cases [of Russians' enlistment], of which Pete Wishkenlski from Byelorussia was one. Wishkenlski, enlisting in Brisbane, was singled out from other Russians and compelled to make a statutory declaration: ‘My father and mother were born in Russia. I was born in Russia. I am not of German, Austrian, Bulgarian, or Turkish parentage.’

    [...] The Russian Anzacs settling down with their farms became part of the last Australian generation to pioneer the land, establishing in the process an intimate connection with the land and its people. They were often few and far between in outback areas: Pete Wishkenlski, for instance, who’d been a tunneller in the army, settled on a returned soldiers’ dried-fruits block at Red Cliffs near Mildura (Victoria) and, according to the local policeman, was ‘the only Russian in this district’. For local people their only knowledge of Russians would have come from contact with people like Wishkenlski and other similar pioneers spread out all over Australia.

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