Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Bernard Callaway
Lee-on-the-Solent/Cannes
Bernard Samuel Callaway was born in St Helens on the Isle of Wight in 1871, a son of Frederick William Callaway, yacht captain and master mariner, and his wife Ellen Eliza. Bernard began his golfing career as a caddie at the Royal Isle of Wight course.

Alternating between work as a caddy and a deck hand on yachts, he became assistant professional at Lee-on-the-Solent. From here he was asked to help lay out the course at Hyères on the French Riviera. His father-in-law to be William Freemantle became professional here shortly afterwards and, after another spell working as a deckhand, Bernard became assistant at Cannes ultimately becoming professional himself with a staff of twelve.

He married Freemantle’s daughter Elsie Eva, possibly the first female golf instructor in continental Europe, in 1906.

In summer, when Cannes was too hot for golf, he was professional at Samaden, in Engadine, and Villars in Switzerland and was also at Malaga on Spain’s southern coast.

He was unfortunate enough to be laying out a course in Baden Baden in 1914 so ended up being interned for the duration of the First World War in Ruhleben in Berlin, with a dozen or so other golf professionals among the four thousand internees.

After the war he returned to Cannes as professional. The Callaways had the misfortune of being interned again during the Second World War. Both died in Cannes in 1953.

Bernard’s brother Chris

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