Calwell, Walter Henry
Lieutenant
5th Battalion attached 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Died of wounds on Tuesday 27 August 1918 (aged 33)
Buried:
Arneke British Cemetery, France (Grave III. D. 7)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Holywood and District War Memorial
First Holywood Presbyterian Church
Sullivan Upper School Holywood
Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM)
Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance
Brother of Lieutenant Theophilus Legate Calwell MC
Cousin of Private Charles Martyn Legate
Cousin of Second Engineer George William Legate
BIOGRAPHY
Walter Henry Calwell was born on 23 April 1885 at 8 Pacific Avenue, Belfast and he was a son of Walter and Rebecca Busby Calwell (nee Perry) who were married on 8 January 1875 in First Holywood Presbyterian Church. Walter Calwell, a clerk from Belfast, was a son of John Calwell, a factory manager. Rebecca Perry from Cultra was a daughter of James Perry, a farmer.
The Calwell family lived in Belfast before they moved to Holywood where they lived in Shore Street, in the Esplanade, at 84 High Street and in Spafield.
Walter Calwell Senior worked as a clerk, warehouseman and linen warehouse manager in the Brookfield Linen Company, Donegall Street, Belfast and he and Rebecca had ten children including:
Margaret Busby (born 29 November 1876 at 10 Florence Place, Belfast)
Alice Turner (born 9 March 1881 at 38 Summer Street, Belfast)
James Perry (6 March 1883 at 8 Pacific Avenue, Belfast)
Walter Henry (23 April 1885 at 8 Pacific Avenue, Belfast)
William Kirkwood (27 February 1887 in Shore Street, Holywood)
Robert John (27 October 1890 in Shore Street, Holywood)
Theophilus Legate (30 May 1892 in Shore Street, Holywood)
Charles Stanley Allen (9 January 1894 in Shore Street, Holywood)
Walter Henry Calwell attended Sullivan National School from 1896 to 1897. After leaving school he moved to Canada where he worked as the Superintendent in a sewer works. On 9 November 1914 he enlisted in Vancouver and it was noted in his attestation papers that he was 5 feet 5 inches tall with a dark complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He served with the Canadian Infantry (No. 75159) and fought with them in the trenches before his appointment to a commission with the 5th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles on 18 December 1916. Lieutenant Walter Calwell was wounded in action on 18 June 1917 and again more seriously on 24 August 1918. He died three days later, on 27 August 1918, in No. 62 Casualty Clearing Station and at that time his younger brother, Captain William Kirkwood Calwell, was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Lieutenant Walter Henry Calwell was 33 when he died, and he was buried in Arneke British Cemetery in France. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
SPLENDID YOU PASSED THE GREAT SURRENDER MADE
INTO THE LIGHT THAT NEVER MORE SHALL FADE
Lieutenant Walter Henry Calwell is commemorated on Holywood and District War Memorial; in First Holywood Presbyterian Church; in Sullivan Upper School Holywood; on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) and in the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance.