George Frederick Calver

A Private with the 9th Battalion, George died on 13th of September 1916 at the age of 25. 

George was born at Lowestoft on 14 February 1891, a son of William Ling and Elizabeth Sarah Ann Calver. He was baptised at Saint Peter’s Church, Kirkley, on 24 February 1891. Throughout his life George’s family lived at 1 Ontario Road, Kirkley. From 1 July 1895 George was a pupil at Kirkley School. Later his parents lived at 117 Portland Street, Norwich.  

In 1911 George worked as a shop assistant at a drapery.  

George enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 22910. 

Colonel Murphy’s ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’ has the following account of the 9th Battalion’s attack at The Quadrilateral 13 September 1916:

The battalion took part in an attack by the 61st Division on the Quadrilateral., the 71st Brigade being on the left and the 16th on the right. The 9th Battalion attacked with three companies in the front line and one in support, zero being 6.20 a.m. The battalion got through the German out post line quite easily, but on gaining the open ground, which stretched for about four hundred yards to the enemy’s wire, came under a terrific machine-gun fire from the formidable strong point known as the Quadrilateral. Across this bare expanse the men struggled bravely forward. Lieutenant Macdonald with others getting close enough to throw a bomb into the German stronghold before being wounded. No further progress could, however, be made. At 7.30 a.m. another attack, in which A Company participated, was launched; and in the evening a third. Still no entrance could be effected. The battalion therefore, in touch with the units on both flanks, dug itself in on a line about half a mile in front of the jumping off trenches of the morning.  

The Battalion’s casualties were: officers 2 killed and 10 wounded; other ranks 15 killed and 185 wounded. 

George was reported missing and later it was concluded that he had died on, or since, 13-16 September.