Tag Archives: 4 August 1914

A biographer worries…

A big challenge for the biographer when his subject died in the trenches is, frankly, stylistic: should he/she go with the deepening muffled drums, the lugubrious blanket that descends on your prose as the end draws closer? No, in my … Continue reading

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A biographer writes…

The main object of ‘Calderonia’ is to post events and documents in a kind of ‘real time’ ; exactly a hundred years after they happened.  And judging by the emails I have received, that’s what people appreciate.  This timeline approach … Continue reading

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5 August 1914

Note that George Calderon’s ‘Attestation’ simply meant that he had joined the ‘Territorial Force’ and this committed him to ‘Four Years Service in the United Kingdom’.  In his excellent The British Soldier of the First World War (Shire Books, 2010) Peter Doyle … Continue reading

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4 August 1914

At 8 a.m. German troops crossed the Belgian border. In the morning, presumably by telephone, Calderon made an appointment to see the Colonel of the Inns of Court Regiment, who was previously unknown to him. This time George did deploy … Continue reading

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3 August 1914

Of course the Adjutant turned him down – saying he was far too old. It must have been a bitter blow to Calderon, yet it is very unlikely that he showed it. He may have tried to reason, perhaps he … Continue reading

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2 August 1914

Suddenly (he had no time to let Kittie know he was coming), George Calderon returned to London. On 1 August Germany and France mobilised, and the party holidaying on the Isle of Wight soon heard the news. Evey (Captain Pym) … Continue reading

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1 August 1914

It gives me much pleasure, from a personal acquaintance of a good many years, to be able to speak with confidence and very favourably indeed of the capacity of Mrs Calderon to undertake almost any or all of the duties … Continue reading

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30 July 1914

I got a porter and was making for the boat at Portsmouth Harbour station when I met Evey on the platform, with a nice dry man Bland, Ipswich branch of Barclay’s bank: he had a motor launch and we came … Continue reading

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Calderonia – A Writer Goes to War

Weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not. —Wilfred Owen George Calderon was killed on 4 June 1915 at the murderous ‘Battle of Achi Baba’ on the Gallipoli Peninsula. When his death was officially confirmed in 1919 The … Continue reading

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