George Emmanuel Kaldis (the name Kaldis is interchangeable with Kaldellis, and anglicised as Caldis) came from a poor family originating in Akrasi, or Akrasion a small village situated in the hills and small plateau 8 km northwest from Plomari, near the central southern coast of the island of Lesbos, where he was born in 1875.
Amersouda was known as “the orphan" in the village: she was found alive on a beach on the island of Chios as a young child with her younger brother, tragically next to their dead parents who were not Greek but of European descent and were thought to have been slain by pirates.
Kaldis's talents were recognised by the village priest, who arranged for him to receive a good education, first at the gymnasium of Plomari, then in Chios, before finally going to Constantinople (Istanbul) where he studied literature at the Ecole Superieure d’Instituteurs of the Patriarchate.
While Lemnos was under Ottoman rule, George Kaldis was one of the secret agents of the Church and would often travel to Constantinople to report on his work.
However, with the political reforms under way after the Young Turk Revolution, and in keeping with European practice, Kaldis opposed the bishops' continued interference in matters other than strictly ecclesiastical.
He was sentenced to 6 months in prison because all those who had complained and should have testified in his favour had been intimidated by the army and prudently vanished out of reach of the court.
During the 1915 Gallipoli campaign Kaldis was the official representative of the Greek Government on the island of Lemnos whose port was the launching point of the British and ANZAC invasion.
In late 1922, Kaldis took a prominent role in catering for the masses of Greek refugees arriving in the island following the Asia Minor Catastrophe.