The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1868) Sergeant George Calder, 51st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (1868) Sergeant George Calder, 51st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1868 Sergeant George Calder, 51st Battalion, AIF
KIA 30 September 1917

Story delivered 24 November 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant George Calder.

George Calder was born in Gladstone, Victoria, in 1892, the youngest of 12 children born to George and Janett Calder.

Although sharing the same name as his father, the younger George Calder barely knew his father, who died when he was barely a year old. George attended the Goldsborough State School. As a young man he moved to Western Australia, where some of his older brothers were living, and went on to become a miner in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region.

George Calder enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1916. He underwent a period of training in Australia before leaving for active service overseas with reinforcements to the 51st Battalion in July 1916. Arriving in England in early September, he served in training camps at Codford and Perham Downs on the edge of the Salisbury Plain until late November 1916.

In December, Calder was sent to France, joining his battalion on the Somme. There he spent the bitterly cold winter of 1916 and 1917 rotating in and out of the front line in some of the harshest conditions seen in France for decades. He fell sick in March, and spent just under a fortnight out of the line recovering.

Calder returned to his battalion as it was participating in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. On 2 April, it attacked a fortified village called Noreuil which was an outpost to the main Hindenburg defences, capturing it with the 50th Battalion. Later in the year the battalion moved to Belgium in the north, fighting in the Battle of Messines in June. Calder proved an able soldier, and was promoted in March, June, and August of 1917, reaching the rank of sergeant.

On 26 September, the 51st Battalion participated in the Battle of Polygon Wood. Their attack was very successful, and they found little resistance from the enemy as they advanced. Reaching their objective, the men of the battalion quickly dug in and consolidated their new position against enemy counter attack. They remained in the front line for the next few days, before being relieved by the 47th Battalion on the 30th of September.

Sergeant George Calder survived the battle, but did not leave the front line. At some point during 30 September, he was killed in action. Aged 23 at the time of his death, his body was not recovered, and for a time he was among the 6,000 Australian soldiers who died in Belgium and who have no known grave listed on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.

In 2006 workmen laying a new gas pipe line near Westhoek in Belgium discovered the graves of five Australian servicemen. The bodies were carefully exhumed, and three of the five were identified. DNA evidence revealed that one of those from the battlefield grave was Sergeant George Calder. His remains were reinterred in the Buttes New British Cemetery in Polygon Wood with full military honours, and in the presence of his two great-great nieces.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sergeant George Calder, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section