Alexander SAST

Badge Number: 32737
32737

SAST, Alexander

Service Number: 919
Enlisted: 31 August 1914
Last Rank: Driver
Last Unit: 10th Infantry Battalion
Born: Odessa, Russia, 27 October 1888
Home Town: Port Pirie, Port Pirie City and Dists, South Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Motor Mechanic
Died: Illness and blind, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia, 2 June 1928, aged 39 years
Cemetery: Rookwood Cemetery & Crematorium
Memorials: Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 1 Service

31 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 919, 10th Infantry Battalion
20 Oct 1914: Involvement Private, 919, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: ''
20 Oct 1914: Embarked Private, 919, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Adelaide
11 Nov 1918: Involvement Driver, 919

WW1

Born in Russia. Served in Russian navy for 5 years. Left the navy and chose to emigrate to Australia. He worked for a number of years on coastal steamers mainly from Melbourne to Adelaide. He applied for citizenship during this period. At th outbreak he was in his home port of Adelaide and enlisted with the 10th Infantry Battalion. He was soon on the way to Egypt for further training and landed with the Unit at Gallipoli. While on a water carrying duty 28th April, he was shot, wounded in the foot. Evacuated to Lemnos, then to 1st AGH in Cairo. Two months later he was returned to the 10th. 18th June he was in action when he was hit by splinters from a Turkish artillery shell. He was laying in no mans land when a Turkish soldier took him back to their lines and he became a prisoner of war. He was treated and interrogated, then sent deeper into enemy territory. He was forced to work in hard conditions with poor rations. December 1915, he was transferred to a POW camp in Bulgaria. He escaped and travelled to Bucharest where local people helped him with forged papers, he eventually reached Russia, travelled to Archangel to get passage back to the UK. When he arrived there, he was interrogated, his stories were checked with Unit records and so much of what he said was not believed. He was released on conditional parole, allocated to 3rd Div Ammunition Park and he hauled ammunition by the on trailers towed by tractors to the guns. He required additional hospital treatment, eventually gaining medical evacuation to Australia in Sept 1918. He never received a medal for escaping from the enemy.

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