John ‘Jack’ McPherson Caldwell was a farmer on the family property on Cargo Road when World War I broke out. He enlisted in April 1916 and embarked in September the same year. Initially a Private with the 5th Reinforcements of the 14th Machine Gun Company, he was promoted to Corporal in January 1917. Jack was captured and held as a German prisoner of war at Limburg from April 1917 until January 1919. He returned to Australia in May 1919.
Jack was a prominent local identity in Orange. He was elected to Canobolas Shire Council in 1942, and a year later appointed President, a position he held for many years. In 1949 he was elected President of the Shires Association of NSW, having been Vice-President for the preceding two years. Jack was also President of the Orange branch of the Country Party and a member of several other organisations, including the Orange Show Society.
