ALLIKAS, Alexander
| Service Number: | 2103 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 27th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Revel, Russia, 2 March 1899 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Seaman |
| Died: | Old Age, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 7 October 1963, aged 64 years |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Adelaide Commissioner of Public Works Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 2103, 27th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Star of England embarkation_ship_number: A15 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 2103, 27th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Star of England, Adelaide | |
| Date unknown: | Wounded 2103, 7th Field Company Engineers |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by St Ignatius' College
Alexander Allikas was born in Revel Russia 2nd of March, 1899. Before the war Allikas was a seaman by trade. Allikas was a Lutheran and had seven children in total. His eldest child Terence ended up fighting in World War two.
Alexander Allikas enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 31st of May 1915. He was 26 at the time of enlistment and enrolled in the state of South Australia. In June Allikas went to Egypt to train for two months with the rest of his battalion to prepare for the war. While Allikas was in the army he was in a lot of different battalions and war groups. He was first placed into the 27th Battalion. He was then sent to the 1st Army Troop Engineers on the 7th of February 1917. Then he was sent to the 7th field company engineers to then the 16th field company engineer. Then finally back to the 1st army troop engineers on the 11th of October 1917.
During the war Allikas was quite a troublemaker. There are records of two separate times that Allikas left his battalions without leave. The first time was from 23-7-18 to 20-8-18, and the second from 21-8-18 to 7-9-18. Allikas was severely punished after being caught. His punishment included having to pay over 100 days’ pay back to the army. On another website called russiananzacs it tells us that Alexander Allikas never spoke of the war and when he did, he didn’t like speaking about it. This could explain why Alexander would have left for so long. Maybe because he had experienced some trauma during the war and couldn’t handle going back.
During the war Allikas was injured three times. The first time he was wounded in action in France on the 10-4-18. The second time he was admitted to hospital on the 12-4-18. The last time he was also admitted to hospital 1-5-18.
Before Allikas was enlisted into the war, a newspaper wrote about how he allegedly stole 6 bags of wheat. This shows that even before the war Allikas was quite the larikkan and didn’t mind breaking rules.
While in the war Allikas was mainly a sapper in his army troops. Sappers in World War one where mainly regarded as combat engineers. They would perform duties such as barricading, bridge building, clearing minefields, and airfield repair. They would also help build trenches and would often perform maintenance around them.
When Allikas was in the 1st troop army engineers, a group of sappers were instructed to dig a new water way into their trenches. Digging something like this would be very dangerous since most soldiers would be in enemy line of fire. While the construction of this was happening Allikas got injured. It is possible that Allikas was shot while working on these water ways.
At the end of the war Allikas was awarded three military medals and an appreciation of his service. His first medal was a 1914/15-star medal. His second being a British war medal. His last medal was a victory medal.
After surviving the war Allikas was then married to a woman named Beatrice Vera May Allikas. Alexander Allikas died on the 7th of October 1963, at the age of 74 in Hobart Tasmania. He was buried in Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Tasmania.
Bibliography:
recordsearch.naa.gov.au. (n.d.). Session expired | RecordSearch | National Archives of Australia. [online] Available at: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3032055&isAv=N [Accessed 26 Mar. 2024].
russiananzacs.net. (n.d.). Russian Anzacs. [online] Available at: https://russiananzacs.net/Allikas.
www.awm.gov.au. (n.d.). Private Alexander Allikas. [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10530472.