Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
# 395 (A) CALVERT Hugh                    21st Machine Gun Company
 
Hugh Calvert was born in Bundaberg to Amos and Ellen Calvert. The family moved to Nambour and Hugh took up the lease on a farming block in the Nanango District prior to enlisting.
 
When Hugh presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 17th March 1916, he was 19 years old. He stated his occupation as farmer and named his mother, Ellen Calvert of Nambour, as his next of kin. One month later, Hugh reported to Enoggera where he was placed in a depot battalion before being assigned to the reinforcements of the 13th Machine Gun Company.
 
All Machine Gun training was conducted at Seymour outside Melbourne and Hugh travelled by train to begin training in the deployment and use of the Vickers heavy machine gun. The gun required a team of up to six men to transport and then fire. Spare parts, spare barrels, water cans for cooling, heavy canvas belts of .303 ammunition and the cast iron frame had to be accommodated on the limbers which were either pulled by the gun crew themselves of teams of horses. The difficulties presented in deploying the gun was more that offset by its robustness and reliability. Provided the barrel could be kept cool and ammunition kept up, the Vickers could fire in sweeping arcs for several hours.
 
While in camp at Seymour, the gunners were granted leave to visit Melbourne and it was on one of these occasions that young Hugh visited a photographic studio for a portrait. The photo which is included on this webpage shows a fresh-faced young man who is rather short; 5’4” according to his military file. On 19thSeptember 1916 the MG reinforcements boarded the “Commonwealth” in Port Melbourne and sailed for England, arriving in Plymouth on 14th November. The reinforcements travelled by train to Parkhouse on Salisbury Plain and then moved on to the Machine Gun Depot at Grantham. Machine Gun Companies were being reallocated and Hugh was posted to the newly formed 21st Machine Gun Company, which would support units of the 1st Division of the AIF.
 
With coming of spring to the fields of Northern France, the German Forces which had been deeply entrenched near the town of Bapaume began a strategic withdrawal eastward to a heavy defensive barrier that had been constructed during the winter. This barrier, named the Hindenburg Line by the British, presented an almost insurmountable obstacle to the French and British forces which had followed the German withdrawal but the planners were determined to assault the line.
 
The 21st MGCoy was shipped to France in March 1917 and in support of several brigades of Australian and British infantry took up positions up against the Hindenburg defences at Noreuil in April. The standard method of deploying the Vickers guns was to establish forward posts for several guns which could in theory lay down withering enfilading fire against any attackers. The war diary of the 21st MG Coy records that on 15th April 1917, six guns and their crews were captured when the forward posts were surrounded in a surprise move. A Private Erbacker swung his gun around and engaged the German infantry which allowed some of the captives to escape back to friendly territory. However one officer and 18 ordinary ranks remained in German custody. One of those captured was Hugh Calvert.
 
Hugh was originally listed as wounded and missing. His file contains the German medical notes which indicates that he had been taken prisoner and treated for a chest wound before being placed in a POW camp at Duisburg. The treatment of POWs in World War 1 was overseen by the Swiss Red Cross following the rules set out in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Under these rules, ordinary rank prisoners such as Hugh could be used as labour in agriculture or industry. The rations provided to POWs were reduced as the effects of the naval embargo on German imports took effect from the entry of the United States into the conflict in April 1917. POWs supplemented their food with parcels sent from family and friends. The first postcard that Hugh sent contained two words; “send parcels.”
 
Disease in the POW camps was widespread, particularly typhus and cholera but it was influenza which led to Hugh’s death on 21st October 1918. The war would come to an end three weeks later. Hugh was buried in a temporary cemetery adjacent to the POW camp but at the conclusion of hostilities, the newly established Imperial War Graves Commission began the task of placing the remains of the Empire dead in large permanent cemeteries. Hugh’s remains were reinterred in the Niederzwehren Cemetery near Cassel. His family chose the following inscription for his headstone: IN MEMORY OF THE LOVED SON OF MR AND MRS CALVERT. AT REST.