Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Harold Caldwell was born on 31 October 1891 at Beaconsfield, the second son of Alexander Caldwell and his wife Ellen née Chivers. Alexander and Ellen married in 1886 and raised four sons and one daughter. Along with his three brothers and one sister, Harold was educated at Pareora West School, going out to work at the age of 14½. In 1914 Harold was a labourer at Otipua.

H. Caldwell, Timaru, was with the Mounted Rifles for South Canterbury’s quota of the Fourteenth Reinforcements which left Timaru on the afternoon of 8 March 1916. A farewell social had been given him in the Otipua Hall the daye before. Then, on 10 March 1916 at Featherston, Harold Caldwell enlisted. He had undergone the medical examination on 14 January 1916 at Timaru. He stood at 5 feet 7 inches, weighed 136 pounds, and had a chest measurement of 32-36 inches. His complexion was between dark and fair, his eyes and hair brown. His sight, hearing and colour vision were all good, his limbs and chest well formed, and his heart and lungs normal. He was free of diseases, vaccinated, in good bodily and mental health, and had never been off work through illness or ill health.

He belonged to the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment, having registered for compulsory military training at Timaru. A farm hand at Otipua, single and non-conformist, he named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Ellen Caldwell, Otipua P.O., Timaru. Trooper H. Caldwell embarked with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles of the 15th Reinforcements, departing for Suez, Egypt, on 13 July 1916 per the “Manuka”. After transhipping to the “Malwa” at Sydney, he disembarked at Suez on 25 September. had been transferred to the 15th Mounted Rifles on 5 April. On 23 September 1916 at Alexandria, he had been posted from the 15th Reinforcements to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Training Regiment, and from there he was transferred to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade on 2 October. The next day he was posted to the 8th Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. As of 29 October 1916, Trooper Caldwell was in Egypt with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles.

Transferred to Headquarters of the 1st Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles on 20 March 1917, he was still in Egypt in July. Detached to the Rest Camp at Port Said on 24 September 1917, Trooper Caldwell rejoined Headquarters on 4 October. A further training opportunity occurred in April 1918 at Junction Station. On 15 September 1918, Caldwell went to hospital, sick. On 17 September 1918, he was admitted to the 47th Stationary Hospital at Cairo with jaundice. Almost three weeks later he was admitted to the 27th General Hospital at Abbassia with catarrh and jaundice. Then, on 7 October, he was admitted to Aotea Convalescent Home, the jaundice improving. Trooper Caldwell had been posted to the 10th Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles on 11 September 1918, then he was discharged to duty and posted from hospital to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles on 18 October. In November he was boarded for New Zealand.

Transport No. 208, “Malta”, which left Suez on 14 December 1918, was due at a New Zealand port in late January 1919, bringing home from Egypt invalided soldiers, among them Trooper Harold Caldwell, of Otipua, Timaru, and other South Canterbury men. 0n 31 January 1919, a record gathering of residents of Otipua and the surrounding districts assembled in the Otipua Hall to welcome home four returned soldiers who arrived in Timaru the day before, one of them Trooper H. Caldwell. Mr Craigie, M.P., in welcoming home the men expressed the hope that they would soon be restored to health; and on behalf of the residents presented each soldier with a gold medal as a slight acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to King and Country. The returned men suitably responded and expressed their pleasure at being once more among their old friends after the trying experiences of the battlefield. After singing the National Anthem and For They are Jolly Good Fellows, three hearty cheers were given for the returned men. A. good supper was done full justice to. Two and a half months later, on 14 April 1919, he was discharged, no longer physically fit for war service on account of illness contracted on Active Service. He had spent more than three years overseas in Egypt with the Mounted Rifles, for which he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Harold Caldwell returned to his home at Otipua and farmed there. Harold and his brother George got into Miniature Rifles, shooting regularly and to a high standard for the Otipua Club. Later he presented atrophy for club competition. In February 1926, H. Caldwell (Otipua) was elected a member of the South Canterbury Automobile Association. In 1930 his was one of the Otipua Riding donations to the South Canterbury Cancer Fund. Mr H. Caldwell and another asked the Waimate County Council in 1933 to do some protective work to prevent the Pareora River from encroaching on their properties. At the Pareora West School Diamond Jubilee celebrations in October 1934, Harold took part in the Third Decade Men’s race, and Mrs Caldwell in the Fourth Decade Women’s. In October 1935, he was elected a member of the Timaru – St Andrews Branch of the Farmers’ Union.

Harold married Vera May Jackson on 15 October 1924. Their only child, Dorothy, was born in 1926. In the early 1950s they moved into Timaru. Harold died on 28 August 1954 at his Timaru residence, aged 62 years. He was buried at Timaru Cemetery, members of the South Canterbury R.S.A. paying their respects at his funeral. Vera lived over 50 years a widow, dying in 2005 at the grand age of 105. In a very simple Will signed in 1936, Harold bequeathed all his property to his wife and appointed her sole executrix. Harold’s mother who died in 1922 and his father, who died suddenly in 1925 when he collapsed at the wheel while being tested for his driver’s licence, are buried at Timaru, where his brother Charles who was killed in action in December 1917 in France, is remembered on their headstone. In 1919 Mr and Mrs Alex Caldwell donated £5 to the War Memorial Fund, With the support of his father, George, the youngest son of Alexander and Ellen, successfully appealed his call-up. Dorothy (the daughter of Harold and Vera) and her husband are also buried at Timaru. A beautiful memorial window was unveiled in the Bank Street Methodist Church on the first Sunday of July 1922. Apart from the names of the fallen appearing on the window, the names of all who served have been inscribed in a book which will be preserved in the Church. These included Harold Caldwell.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [15 August 2016]; N Z Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0021637) [16 August 2016]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [15 August 2016]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [15 August 2016]; Timaru Herald, 30 August 1954 (Timaru District Library) [15 August 2016]; Timaru Herald, 6 & 7 March 1916, 13 & 29 December 1917, 16 & 21 January 1919, 4 February 1919, 1 November 1919, 16 May 1921, 5 July 1921, 5 July 1922, 29 August 1924, 31 March 1925, 20 February 1926, 4 December 1930, 31 October 1933, 25 October 1934, 3 October 1935, 10 November 1937, Otago Daily Times, 15 January 1919, Star, 15 January 1919, Press, 16 January 1919 (Papers Past) [15 August 2016; 24 March 2020; 26 March 2021; 20 September 2023]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [15 August 2016]; Probate record (Archives NZ/Family Search) [18 August 2016]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [21 September 2023]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• CALDWELL Harold - newspaper clippings (pdf, 84.2 KB updated 22-Sep-2023)

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