Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Andre Tolstoi
One of the things that I enjoy about researching World War I soldiers is coming across something unexpected. Of course, every soldier’s story is important, and many are tragic, but some are different enough to make them really interesting. This is the case with Private André Tolstoi if the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion. The name Tolstoi, or Tolstoy, would be familiar to most people from the famous Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, even if you’ve not read his most famous and very long masterpiece, War and Peace. Tolstoy is a Russian noble name originating around the 15th century. Andre Tolstoi was born in Warsaw in what was then known as Prussia, on 21 June 1873. I’ve not found any evidence of a connection between Andre Tolstoi and Leo Tolstoy, but the future Australian digger is likely to have known of his famous namesake and the wider Tolstoy family of Russian nobility as War and Peace was first published about a decade before Andre’s birth. It’s important not to confuse Prussia with Russia – they were two separate countries. Whilst Warsaw, where Andre Tolstoi was born, is now the capital of Poland, much of Prussia is now modern Germany. During the preceding centuries, Prussia and Russia were both allies and at war with each other.

It seems that Andre Tolstoi came to Australia around the turn of the century and was naturalised as a British Subject in 1912. At the time he listed his occupation as a ‘sugar grower’ and was living in the small Central Queensland community of Ambrose. He had previously lived at Boolboonda west of Bundaberg where he was a miner. At the time he was 39 years old and was married to Agnes and they had a daughter also named Agnes.

When Tolstoi enlisted in the AIF in January 1916, he listed his occupation as ‘miner’ and his wife’s address as “Summer Building, Denham St, Rockhampton”. On 3 May 1916 he embarked on the A49 Seang Choon along with many other volunteers on their way to war. He disembarked at Suez on the 25th of June and then proceeded to England on the 6th of August. He joined the 15th Battalion in Belgium on the 16th of October. At the time his battalion were in the trenches at Zillebeke, just outside of Ypres. The War Diary for the time recalls, “Work on improving trenches vigorously pushed on with satisfactory results. Very little artillery activity by enemy throughout the day except between the hours of 4.30 pm and 7. Pm, when heavy trench mortar duels would take place assisted on both sides by shrapnel.”

Andre Tolstoi stayed with the 15th Battalion through the winter of 1916/17 rotating in and out of the front lines and undergoing training. In April 1917 the Battalion was in France and ordered to attack the enemy positions around Reincourt along with other battalions of the 4th Division in the first Battle of Bullecourt. This action was a disaster for the Australians. A decision was made to use the new tanks instead of artillery for fire support. The tanks had mechanical problems and didn’t arrive on time so when the troops of the 15th Battalion attacked the German positions, all of the wire obstacles were still in place and the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on the attacking Australians. After the battle, the Commanding Officer of the 15th Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Terrence McSharry, wrote, “The wire in front of the first objective was almost intact on our front and it is estimated we had nearly 100 casualties on this wire from enemy M.G. (machine gun) fire. The wire in front of the second objective was intact excepting enemy sally-ports which were swept by Machine Guns; we lost heavily on this wire also.” No runners returned from the front line to report on the situation and the Commanding Officer, sent forward a number of junior officers to gain information and none of these returned, suffering the same fate as the runners. Eventually, those troops who could, returned to their original positions and wounded were brought in by stretcher bearers. Andre Tolstoi was among the 383 casualties suffered by the 15th Battalion that awful day. He was listed as ‘missing in action’. Later that year his wife received information from another 15th Battalion man that Andre had been taken prisoner. She wrote to the military authorities asking them for any information. The Army’s reply indicated that they thought there was little possibility that he was a prisoner as the Red Cross had reasonably good information on prisoners in German camps. On 2 November 1917, a Court of Enquiry found that Private Andre Tolstoi had been killed in action on 11 April 1917. There are two conflicting accounts in the Red Cross enquiry regarding his fate. Lance Corporal Stapleton claims to have seen Tolstoi bandaging his own leg would in a shell hole while Private Grisbrook claims to have seen him blown up by an enemy shell. Both can’t be correct, but this is to be expected in the fog of war. Interestingly Stapleton said that Andre Tolstoi carried several wounds from other wars and said that he was a “Frenchman and spoke French”. After the War Tolstoi’s wife Agnes, completed the “Roll of Honour Card” and said that he had served in the French Army and was “well educated in France”. This is a lead for further research.

The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton daily newspaper) reported on 7 March 1919, that Mrs A Tolstoi attended the ceremony for the “Fallen Soldiers, Presentation of Memorials” hosted by the Mayoress, Mrs C. O. Gough, along with hundreds of other wives, husbands and mothers of soldiers from the district killed in the War. On the State Library of Queensland website showing photos of Queenslanders killed in WWI, Tolstoi’s name is shown as ‘Tolster’. There is no record of ‘A. Tolster’ serving in the AIF, so it’s reasonable to assume that this photo is of Andre Tolstoi.
Andre Tolstoi, farmer, miner, soldier, husband and father, born in Prussia, educated in France, died in France, fighting for his adopted home Australia, against the descendants of the Prussians. Rest In Peace Digger.

Bibliography
Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour, Andre Tolstoi, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1669914, accessed 28 June 2023.

Australian War Memorial, War Diary 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, AWM4 23/32/19, October 1916, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1355876, accessed 28 June 2023.

Australian War Memorial, War Diary 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, AWM4 23/32/25 – April 1917, Australian War Memorial, War Diary 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, accessed 28 June 2023.

National Archives of Australia, NAA: A1, 1912/12186, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=13565, accessed 28 June 2023.

National Archives of Australia, NAA: B2455, Tolstoi Andre, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8391939, accessed 28 June 2023.

State Library Queensland, A. Tolster, https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE2008669, accessed 28 June 2023.

Trove, Morning Bulletin, 7 March 1919, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53900312, accessed 28 June 2023.

University of New South Wales, AIF Database, Andre Tolstoi, https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=302329, accessed 28 June 2023.

Virtual War Memorial Australia, Andre Tolstoi, https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/133954, accessed 28 June 2023.

Wikipedia, Tolstoy (disambiguation), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolstoy_(disambiguation), accessed 18 June 2023.