Calway, Frank Ferguson, 1921-1941

Calway, Frank Ferguson, son of Frank Hugh Ferguson Calway, silk throwster, of Duddlestone, Somerset, and Susan Dorothy, d. of Joseph B. Harcombe of Cape Town; b. 3 Feb. 1921; adm. Sept. 1934 (B); left July 1939; RN (Ord. Seaman); d. on active service 31 Aug. 1941.

Frank Ferguson Calway was born at Taunton, Somerset on the 3rd of February 1921 the only son of Frank Hugh Ferguson Calway, director of a silk mill, and Susie Dorothy (nee Harcombe) Calway of “Quoits Field”, Duddlestone in Somerset. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Busby’s from September 1934 to July 1939. He was a member of the 1st Cricket XI from 1937 to 1939 and was Captain in the latter year. He was a member of the 1st Football XI in 1938 and 1939, where he played as goalkeeper. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps, where he was promoted to Lance Corporal in September 1937 and later rose to the rank of Sergeant. He was appointed as Head of House in 1938 and was amember of the Debating Society where he was elected as President in 1938.
On leaving school he travelled to Canada on the 5th of August 1939 where he played cricket for a public schools side but following the outbreak of war, he returned home on board the SS Duchess of Atholl, landing at Liverpool on the 6th of October 1939. On his return he joined his father’s firm for a period of nine months and was one of the first members of the Corfe Home Guard. He played for the Taunton Cricket Club in 1940 and for the Y.M.C.A Football XI in 1939. He enlisted in the Royal Navy and was posted to HMS Quebec, the naval training establishment at Inverary in Argyll. He contracted a pulmonary abscess and died from pneumonia at Drymen Hill Hospital near Loch Lomond.
His funeral took place on the 4th of September 1941 in a service conducted by the Reverend T.L.T. Fisher. A guard of honour was provided by the Corfe Home Guard.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Corfe.
He is buried at St Nicholas’ Church, Corfe Grave 369.

Ordinary Seaman D/JX 238109 HMS Quebec, Royal Navy

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.

Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.