Calderon had not by now heard whether he had been given a commission, so he went to see his golfing acquaintance Lieutenant-Colonel Coote Hedley, who lived not far away in Belsize Avenue, to ask what he, George, could do to hasten becoming ‘combatant’.
‘My dear fellow, unless it comes to a case of the nation in arms you’ll never be accepted as a combatant,’ Hedley told him straight.
Events were to show that this was not accurate: before long the territorials were being drafted into France. But Calderon could not wait till then.
Next entry: 23 August 1914
