Robert Henry Caldwell
From The Orange Wiki
CALDWELL, Robert Henry
Service no: 5649 [1]
Place of birth: Glebe 1896
Address: Darling Street, Rozelle
Occupation: Ship’s painter
Next of kin: Katherine Caldwell (mother), Nareen, Blake Street, Millthorpe
Date of enlistment: 5 January 1916
Place of enlistment: Liverpool
Age at enlistment: 20
Fate: Embarked Sydney HMAT A14 Euripides, 9 September 1916. Disembarked Plymouth 16 October 1916. Appointed Corporal 4 June 1917. Wounded in action Belgium 4 October 1917. Admitted to Devonport Military Hospital with shell wounds 11 October 1917. Admitted to Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich with acute peritonitis 26 December 1917. Died of disease, appendicitis, Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, England, 1 January 1918.
Date of death: 1 January 1918
Buried: Brookwood Cemetery, Pirbright, Surrey, England, Plot 11, Row A, Grave 19
Robert Henry Caldwell was living in Sydney and working as a ship’s painter when he enlisted in January 1916. His brother, William Andrew Caldwell, who lived in Millthorpe, had enlisted in December 1915 and the brothers trained together at camp in Bathurst.
Robert embarked from Sydney in September 1916, just a month before his brother. A Private in the 19th Battalion, 15th Reinforcements; Robert was appointed Corporal in June 1917.
Corporal Caldwell was hospitalised several times during 1917 suffering from gunshot and shell wounds. On 28 December he took ill after dinner and was again admitted to hospital. The following day Robert was dangerously ill with peritonitis and his brother William was recalled from France to be with him. Robert died on New Year’s Day 1918, aged 22. He was accorded a military funeral and buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Pirbright, Surrey.
Robert Henry Caldwell is commemorated on St Joseph’s Church Orange Honour Roll and on panel number 88 on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
William Andrew Caldwell survived the First World War; he returned to Australia in November 1919.
The Late Corporal RH Caldwell [2]
