Arthur J. Currie

CURRIE, Sir ARTHUR WILLIAM, teacher, insurance salesman, militia officer, real-estate developer, army officer, office holder, and university administrator; b. 5 Dec. 1875 in Adelaide Township, Ont., third of the seven children of William Garner Curry and Jane Patterson; m. 14 Aug. 1901 Lucy Sophia Chaworth-Musters (d. 1969), known as Lily or Lillie, in Victoria, and they had a son and two daughters, one of whom died in infancy; d. 30 Nov. 1933 in Montreal and was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in Outremont (Montreal). The battle of Festubert later that month revealed again the Allies’ want of experience in launching offensive operations. Plagued by poor intelligence and by wholly inadequate artillery support from commanders in the rear, Currie’s brigade was shattered in fruitless fighting, sustaining more than 1,200 casualties over a few days. A frustrated Currie had pleaded with Alderson to postpone one suicidal frontal assault against entrenched German positions protected by uncut barbed wire, but he had been overruled. After a second division had been raised over the winter of 1914–15 [seeSir Samuel BenfieldSteele*], the Canadian Corps was formed in September 1915, with Alderson in command. Currie, who had been promoted colonel and then brigadier-general earlier in the year, was now made a major-general and given command of the 1st Division on the 14th. He surrounded himself with a strong staff, including many experienced British officers, but he also began to encounter civilian meddling, most notably from the recently knighted Sam Hughes, who tried to impose officers in the politicized corps. Currie attempted to block this interference, with mixed results; much of the fight fell to his senior, Alderson, who increasingly clashed with Hughes.