BOXER SOLDIERS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 4

BOXER SOLDIERS

MERITORIOUS RECORDS PRIVATE CALDER NOW MISSING Mr C. W. Calder, of Palmer Street, Te Awamutu, has received advice that his brother, Private H. Calder, of Bluff, has been reported missing. Private Calder is one of the keenest boxers produced in Southland in the last twenty years. He became a quadruple champion, an honour almost unique in boxing. He won the Southland, Wellington, Taranaki, and Otago championships in turn, and represented three provinces Wellington, Taranaki, and Southland—at the New Zealand championships. He did not win a national title, but he went very close to doing so when he was runner-up in the light-weight division at the New Zealand championships in Invercargill in 1939. Private Calder is a light-weight boxer, but he won the Otago welter-weight championship. The same year (1939) he was runner-up in the light-weight class. Mr Calder’s brother-in-law, Private R. V. R. Baker, of Invercargill, now serving in Libya, has also been prominent in the fistic firmament. He won the middle-weight championship of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force after five fights, his performance being regarded as highly meritorious. He also won the cup presented by Major-General Sir Bernard Freyberg for the most scientific boxer in the tournament. Private Baker also won his bout in the N.Z.E.F. matches against the British Army team, for which he received a medal. He was also victorious in the middleweight contest against the United Services’ team, the prize being a cup. In addition he was awarded a second cup for being the most outstanding exponent of the pugilistic art. Prior to leaving New Zealand Private Baker was an instructor at one of the military ettmps in New Zealand, holding a similar position on the troopship when en route to the theatre of hostilities.