CALLAN, Hugh
| Service Number: | 5652 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 January 1916, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 14th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ararat, Victoria, Australia, 26 December 1881 |
| Home Town: | St Kilda, Port Phillip, Victoria |
| Schooling: | St Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Bank clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 5 February 1917, aged 35 years |
| Cemetery: |
Bancourt British Cemetery Plot V, Row L, Grave No. 7 |
| Memorials: | Albert Park South Melbourne & Sydney Swans Football Club Honour Roll, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Jan 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 5652, 14th Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 May 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 5652, 14th Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln | |
| 22 Jan 1917: | Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 14th Infantry Battalion, France | |
| 5 Feb 1917: | Involvement AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 5652, 14th Infantry Battalion | |
| 4 May 1917: | Involvement Private, 5652, 14th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Lincoln embarkation_ship_number: A17 public_note: '' | |
| 4 May 1917: | Embarked Private, 5652, 14th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Port Lincoln, Melbourne |
Help us honour Hugh Callan's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Robert Wight
Philip Hughes Callan was an Australian rules footballer who played 35 games for Essendon (1903-05) and 36 games for South Melbourne (1907-10) in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Callan played in the ruck, and was noted for his "nimbleness of foot", "extreme courage", and "excellent palming of the ball".
"Educated at St. Patrick's College, Melbourne, the late Hughie Callan early gave promise of developing into a great player – a promise which was amply fulfilled. On the field he was quick, clever, and daring; a trifle reckless at times, yet always an opponent from whom danger was to be expected, as he was capable of doing exceptional things." – The Record, 10 March 1917.
Source: Fallen, The Ultimate Heroes, p.30-31
Biography contributed by Rod Hutchings
FROM THE GOAL SQUARE TO THE GUEUDECOURT MUD: THE FALL OF HAWTHORN’S CAPTAIN
The leather of the football is slick with Melbourne rain as he leads the Hawks onto the turf. Hugh Callan was 34 years old, a clerk from Ararat, and the former captain of the Hawthorn Football Club when he stood before a medical officer in January 1916. He stood five feet and eight inches tall, weighing 138 pounds, a sturdy frame that had carried him through 71 games for Essendon and South Melbourne before he took the lead at Hawthorn in 1912.
By the winter of 1916, the cheering of the VFL crowds had been replaced by the rhythmic thud of artillery. Callan had enlisted as a private in the 14th Battalion, part of the famous 4th Brigade known to many as "Jacka’s Mob". He embarked from Melbourne aboard the HMAT Port Lincoln on 4 May 1916, leaving behind his wife, Eleanor, at their home on Prince Street, St Kilda.
The transition to the Western Front was unforgiving. In late November 1916, Callan was admitted to the 5th General Hospital in Rouen, suffering from a severe case of influenza. He spent the Christmas season in a convalescent depot, far from the familiar sights of the Melbourne cricket grounds. He rejoined his unit in early January 1917, and on 22 January, a single stripe of woollen cloth was added to his sleeve; he was promoted to Lance Corporal to complete the battalion's establishment.
He held the rank for exactly fourteen days.
On 5 February 1917, while the 14th Battalion operated near Gueudecourt, Callan was killed in action. The record is silent on the specific moment of his death, noting only that he fell during the relentless push against the German lines. He was initially buried in a scattered grave close to a road, roughly 50 yards northeast of a road hoop near Gueudecourt.
The war did not end for his family with the telegram. Eleanor had moved to Bairnsdale, where she waited for news while working at C.E. Wade’s chemist shop. In February 1918, a small package arrived by registered post containing Hughie’s identity disc, a small, circular piece of compressed fibre that had survived the mud when he did not.
Lance Corporal Hugh Callan was eventually reinterred at the Bancourt British Cemetery in France, where he rests in Plot 5, Row L, Grave 7. Eleanor was later awarded his British War Medal and Victory Medal, the final acknowledgments of a captain who had traded the goal square for a permanent place in the soil of Picardie.
Lest we forget
Rod Hutchings
Director, Virtual War Memorial Australia
Source Crediting:
National Archives of Australia: B2455, CALLAN H.
Australian War Memorial: Roll of Honour.
Hawthorn Football Club War Service List.
Click images to start slideshow.