MCCALLUM, Duncan
| Service Number: | 2837 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 November 1916, Enlisted at Royal Agricultural Society Showground, Moore Park, Sydney. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 36th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Redfern, New South Wales, Australia, 27 February 1882 |
| Home Town: | Marrickville, Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Permanent Way Worker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 12 October 1917, aged 35 years |
| Cemetery: |
Dochy Farm New British Cemetery |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Nov 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2837, 36th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Royal Agricultural Society Showground, Moore Park, Sydney. | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Nov 1916: | Involvement Private, 2837, 36th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '17' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Beltana embarkation_ship_number: A72 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Nov 1916: | Embarked Private, 2837, 36th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Beltana, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
Duncan MCCALLUM (Service Number 2837) was born on 27th February 1882 in Wells Street, Redfern. He worked for the NSW Government Railways as a fettler in the Permanent Way Branch Metropolitan Division, Hurstville to Kiama, in January 1911. In 1912 and 1913 he worked at MacDonaldtown and Erskineville, though by April 1916 his place of work became the generic ‘Metropolitan Division’. He was granted leave to join the Expeditionary Forces on 13th November.
He enlisted at the RAS Showgrounds the next day, not only giving his ‘trade or calling’ as ‘Fettler’ but claiming to have served an apprenticeship in platelaying. Unmarried, he gave his brother Donald McCallum, c/o Union Box Company, Annandale, as his next of kin.
He was allotted to the 36th Australian Infantry Battalion, McCallum embarked HMAT ‘Beltana’ at Sydney on 25th November 1916 and reached Devonport (England) on 29thJanuary 1917. A month later he was hospitalised with bronchitis and it was March before he joined the 9th Training Battalion and July 1917 before he was taken on the strength of the 36th Battalion in Belgium.
Only six weeks later he was admitted to the 9th Field Ambulance with Influenza but he quickly recovered.
He was killed in action on 12th October 1917 and buried at first at a map reference B1056-Sheet 1Y and this may be near Langemarck. After the war this grave was located, his remains exhumed and re-interred at Dochy Farm New British Cemetery, Passchendaele.
A report by A.H. Pritchard 17567, 10th Field Ambulance survives:
‘D.McCallum (married, Private address 7 Ferndale St., Newtown, Sydney) died on our stretcher while being taken from Otto Farm (pill box R/A D/Stn) just outside Passchendaele and Berlin Wood pill box R/P/S. We did what we could in the darkness and heavy shelling to keep him up and when he died (on our shoulders) we put him at the side of the duckboards. He had been wounded further on and brought to Otto Farm whence we took him, and when he died we carried on. (Entry from diary of this date “McCallum died, carrying through mud up to waist deep – raining, Otto Farm blown up and our Sgt. (Sgt Crook) killed and eight wounded. W.A.R.”). I know nothing about his burial.’
Although this report apparently has erroneous information that McCallum was married, it is in fact substantially correct. Elizabeth Corney did live at that address with McCallum’s ex nuptial child or children. Some of his service medals were passed to her care for safe custody until his children were old enough to value them. Pensions were granted to:
Elizabeth Taylor (Correct name Elizabeth Corney) – ‘reputed wife’;
Pearlie Elizabeth Corney – ‘ex-nuptial child’;
and Kathleen May Corney – ‘ex-nuptial child’.
Elizabeth had moved to Walter Street, Lidcombe and named her house Passchendale.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
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