Kyritsis Documents Greeks in Australian Forces

 

Steve Kyritsis, President of Victoria’s RSL Hellenic Sub-branch and a volunteer guide at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, is organizing a lecture on the Greek presence in the Australian armed forces. The lecture will be held in Ithacans auditorium Odysseus in Melbourne, one of the most historic Diaspora foundations, on Nov. 18.

Kyritsis has spent the last three years researching the untold stories of servicemen and women of Greek descent who served Australia in the two World Wars of the 20th Century.

Through painstaking research in the National Archives, his new book sets out to reveal every Greek who enlisted with the Australian military as far back as the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

Kyritsis was a veteran in the Vietnam War and his first book is a research on the Greeks who served the Australian military there. His next book, published during the previous months, entitled Greek Australians in the Australian forces WWI and WWII, is dedicated to these people who served the military, suffered and died during those wars.

The book is in Greek and English and includes a chapter concerning the Greek Australian Alik Jakomos, who occupied an important place in Victorian Aboriginal Community. For more than 50 years he was involved with aboriginal issues. Jakomos’ relations with the Aboriginal communities was based on love and equality respect. He passed away in March of 1999, at 74 years old but remains an legend for Australian Aboriginals.