CALVERT, Noel Leonard, (1877-1900) Born on 25 December 1877, the son of John Calvert and Margaret Fair nee Chirnside, of Irrewarra Station, Colac, Noel Leonard Calvert was initially educated privately.
According to
Geelong Grammarians he briefly attended the Geelong College in 1892 before being enrolled at Geelong Grammar on 10 February 1892. Geelong College does not hold any enrolment details for him, however an 'N L Calvert' is listed in the Annual Report of 1892 as being awarded 1st prize in Arithmetic in the 3rd Class. His brothers all attended Geelong College.
If he was a former collegian then his death during the Anglo-South African war is that of the first former Collegian to die in war. This honour had traditionally been assigned to
John Vincent Kearns (1875-1901) who is recorded on the College's
Anglo-South African War Memorial Tablet in the Senior School Dining Hall at Geelong College..
At Geelong Grammar School, Noel Leonard Calvert stroked the first crew which rowed Head of the River in 1895; he was also in the crew the following year, and played in the 1st Football XVIII. In 1896, he went to England and entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he rowed in the 2 position in the successful Cambridge boat in the 1899 Cambridge/Oxford Boat Race, the first success for Cambridge for ten years.
In November 1899, he joined the 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) from the West Kent Militia, was commissioned Lieutenant, and served in the Anglo-South African War, where he was killed in action while serving with his regiment as part of French's Brigade, on 19 October, 1900 near Bethel, midway between Carolina and Heidelberg in the Transvaal. He is buried in Ermelo Cemetery, Transvaal.
He is not named on the memorial tablet to those who served in the Anglo-South African War in the Geelong College Senior School Dining Hall.
He was also the first former student of Geelong Grammar to die in war and his name is included on a memorial tablet in the School Chapel at Corio.
Sources: 'Geelong Collegians at the Great War' compiled by James Affleck p2 (citing Justin Corfield, Michael Collins Persse, Geelong Grammarians: A Biographical Register Vol 1.)