Pte. David Calder 93rd Battalion/ 18th Battalion 195807

David Smith Calder 195807

David Smith Calder was born in Dummer Township on June 08, 1874 to parents Phoebe (Fry) and James Calder.  James appeared to have passed away before David was 16 years of age, and the family was supported by three older brothers, all in their twenties. 

Calder's Attestation File Click Here to Access Service File

David enlisted in the Peterborough 93rd Battalion on March 16, 1916.  He was over 41 years old at the time, stood 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighed 144 pounds.  He had a fresh complexion; hazel eyes and dark brown hair.  He was unmarried, listed his occupation as labourer and his religion as Presbyterian.  He also indicated that he had 9 years previous service with the 57^th Peterboro Regiment, a permanent militia regiment based in the city.  He was assigned to D Company in the 93^rd Battalion.

David Calder left Montreal with the 93^rd Battalion aboard the Empress of Britain and arrived in England on July 25^th 1916.  The Peterboro Battalion was soon broken up and its ranks sent to other battalions already engaged at the front.  Pte. Calder was among a few who were reassigned to the 18^th Battalion.  He reported for duty in the field on September 16, 1916.

Calder joined the 18^th Battalion as it was taking part in the major Allied offensive known as the Somme Offensive.  The very day Calder arrived, his battalion was coming out of the trenches after their bloody attack on the enemy lines at the “Sugar Refinery” at Courcellette.  He was one of 57 reinforcements that arrived that very day to help rebuild the shattered battalion.  The 18^th moved to billets miles away from the front lines and used the next ten days to prepare for the next major assault on the enemy's trenches. On the 26^th of October the Canadians launched another attack on the German lines at Courcellette, the 18^th Battalion was kept in reserve during this attack, owing by all probability to the fact it was still under strength from the attack 10 days previously.

Private David Calder would have experienced his first time “going over the top” on October 1^st, as the 18^th was part of the first wave attack against German lines on the renewed offensive at Courcellete.  They were on the left of the Canadian attack, charged with capturing minor German trenches in front of the formidable Regina Trench.  They successfully advanced behind a creeping barrage and initially captured their trenches without much difficulty.  They spent a miserable night enduring rain, enemy shellfire and a German counterattack.  They moved out of their newly won positions on the 3^rd of October and moved back into a reserve at the position referred to as Sausage Valley.  The 18^th Battalion was afforded the position of not being part of the next and final, Canadian attack in the Somme Offensive on October 8^th.  Rather, the 18^th spent the time in reserve, off the front line. 

As the Somme Offensive fizzled out, the 18^th stayed in the area, but went into more regular routines of a six day routine: six days in the front lines, six in reserve trenches and the same in rest billets in the .   Calder spent the first half of November within this routine before  he reported to the rest camp with severe pains in his legs and arms on November 16^th.  He later admitted to doctors that he started experiencing pains in the arches of his feet two weeks after arriving in France.  He was immediately sent to the No.7 Canadian Stationary Hospital in La Harve, France on November 29, 1916 and shortly there-after to England.  He bounced around to different English hospitals from December to March 917, all the while still suffering from pains in his shins, ankles, knees and elbows, especially aggravated during the cold weather.  An exam undertaken in March, noted that Calder was “thin and badly nourished” as well as looking older than his stated age.  He was treated with mineral baths, which made his eczema better, but provided little change in his myalgia.

He was discharged on June 11, 1917 and was invalided back to Canada that day, as he was no longer considered fit for service.  Upon arriving in Kingston he entered a convalescent home, and was soon diagnosed with slightly flat feet, varicose veins, and a deformed right arch, that was likely a cause much of the pain in his lower limbs.

Pte. David Calder's grave in Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough

Calder was awarded a 20% disability pension for his myalgia and another 20% for a duration of 2 months for his eczema.  Doctors ruled that both conditions were present before enlisting, yet they were aggravated by service.  They also stated that though Pte. Calder claimed to be 42, but that he looked like a man of 50 years of age.

Calder continued to convalesce at Queen’s Military Hospital in Kingston throughout most of 1917, until he was released on December 11th of that year.  David Calder returned to Dummer Township where he shows up on the 1921 census employed as a mason.  David Calder died on October 07, 1943.  

Source:

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths- 1869-1913. MS 929, reels 1-245. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario.

Cook, Tim. “At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting The Great War 1914-1916. Volume One. Toronto: Viking Canada. 2007.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1881. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1891. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2008.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Census of 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2004.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 2013.

Library and Archives Canada online: (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), “Complete Service File: Calder David Smith”. Accessed November 29, 2014.