Oscar Strauberg

Born 1891      Place Riga, Latvia     Ethnic origin Latvian     Religion Church of England

Father Strauberg, Peter     Mother Strauberg, Bertha

Arrived at Australia

            from Cardiff, England     on 18.11.1916     per Gryfevale     disembarked at Port Adelaide (deserted)

Arrived at Australia  and enlisted with Edward Seltin and  Alexander Mentze

Residence before enlistment Port Adelaide

Occupation AB Seaman

Service

service number 3631     enlisted 21.11.1916     POE Adelaide

unit 5th Pioneer Battalion       rank Private

place Western Front, 1917-1919

final fate RTA 23.08.1919       discharged 13.11.1919

Naturalisation served as Russian subject

Residence after the war Port Kembla, 1936 Sydney

Died 22.08.1942 (1941?) Moorong Hospital, Ryde, NSW

Materials digitised service records (NAA)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

Other seamen found work in whatever capacity they could, after returning from the war, if not at sea then on the waterfront — as the stories of the two Latvian seamen Edward Seltin and Oscar Strauberg show. Both men had deserted their ship, the Gryfevale, during the war and were pressured to enlist by the Russian consul in Adelaide; when they came back in 1919 their paths took different directions.

    Edward Seltin’s son tells what became of them both. ‘Oscar resumed his seafaring life and he worked on the coastal shipping out of Port Kembla, and we saw him only on very rare occasions. I don’t think Oscar ever married … following an accident on the ship when he lost his arm… he died.’

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