Canadian Arthur Currie had never commanded anything larger than a militia regiment by
the outbreak of war in 1914, but within a few years he rose to be Commander of the Canadian
Corps and became one of the most respected and able generals of the First World War.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to another great war bio special edition of “who did what
in World War One?” today featuring Arthur Currie.
He was born December 5, 1875 in the hamlet of Napperton, Ontario, the son of William
Garner Curry and his wife Jane. His name at the time was spelled Curry. The name actually
had been Corrigan when his father’s parents had emigrated from Ireland in 1838, but they
changed it. Arthur would change the spelling in his 20s, supposedly because he didn’t
like it being equated with the food.
Young Arthur was a good student and was heading for a career in law when his father died in
1891, and Arthur subsequently lowered his sights, training in Strathroy and receiving
a third-class teacher’s certificate. In 1894, he headed west to seek his fortune in
British Columbia, taking teaching positions in Sidney and Victoria. In 1899, he left teaching
and began selling insurance in Victoria. In 1901 he married Lucy Sophia Musters, known
as Lil. They would have two children.
Currie’s career began to take off at this time; in 1904 he took over the agency he’d
been working for, but, more importantly for us, he was also getting seriously involved
in the local militia, which he had joined in 1897. He rose quickly through the ranks,
and was an avid student of military affairs, taking courses offered by professional soldiers
and reading all the latest military literature. Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Currie was commanding
the regiment by 1909. When war broke out in 1914, Canada was committed to Britain’s
war effort, as was Currie.
At first, Currie was going to assume the post of commanding officer of the British Columbia
district where he would be in charge of recruitment and training. This would have allowed Currie
to also keep an eye on his finances, which had gone south after a big failure in land
speculation. Currie’s friends, however, thought he was way too good a soldier to stay
at home, and in particular his friend Garnet Hughes, son of the minister of militia and
defense Sam Hughes, persuaded his father to find a good post for him, and in September
1914, Curry became commander of the 2nd Canadian infantry Brigade.
Currie accepted this position, but not before he took over $10,000 from his militia Regiment’s
funds in order to pay off his debts. As you may imagine, this would come back to haunt
him.
In October, Currie and his men, some 4,000 strong, went to England where they would train
over the winter, traveling to the continent in February 1915.
In April, Currie’s brigade was posted to Ypres, just in time for the second battle
of Ypres. It was here that the German first used chlorine gas, opening a hole in the lines.
The Canadians were outnumbered and outgunned, but Currie’s defense was spirited and solid,
and the Canadians fought exceptionally well, and with British reinforcements, the situation
was stabilized. This came at a great cost – by early May when his Brigade was relieved
Currie had lost nearly half of his men.
Two weeks later at Festubert, Currie’s men took a further 1,200 casualties in what was
essentially fruitless fighting, which saw scenes like a frustrated Currie pleading in
vain with his superior General Alderson to postpone a suicidal frontal assault against
entrenched German positions protected by uncut barbed wire.
Curry was quite different from most generals in the British and Colonial forces. He came
from a militia, he was overweight, he didn’t have a moustache. He was easy going and was
popular with his officers, but not so much with the rest of the men, who found him stiff
and pompous. He was not a charismatic leader even though, as he’d show postwar, he was
a powerful orator.
At war, he was above all concerned with avoiding needless sacrifice on the battlefield, and
an obsessive planner who insisted on adequate protection for the men at the sharp end of
an assault. In September 1915 he was promoted to Major-General and given command of the
1st Canadian Division. Alderson was soon replaced as Commander of the Canadian forces with Sir
Julian Byng, a career British officer, who was bewildered by his new post.
Spoiler alert! In early June 1916, the Germans bombarded and shattered the 3rd Canadian Division
at Mount Sorrel. Whole platoons were killed to a man. The counter attack was a failure,
and Byng turned to Currie to regain the lost ground. Currie wouldn’t be rushed and took
ten days to marshal his artillery and have his infantry practice their coming tasks.
They launched a night assault on the 13th, the Canadians cleared the enemy lines and
took back most of the ground. This was the first important and large scale attack by
the Canadians of the war, was a rousing success, and the British command took note.
In September, Currie and his men joined the ongoing carnage of the Battle of the Somme.
Although the Canadian Corps won a victory at Courcelette on the 15th, they fell by the
thousands in the killing grounds before the battle was called off in mid-October.
Both Byng and Currie thought things seriously had to change so Byng commissioned Currie
to do a thorough study of the battle, and of the French Battle of Verdun. Currie’s
report contained two key recommendations; that control over the infantry must be decentralized,
and that heavy artillery was absolutely needed to support the infantry. At the Somme, operations
had been impossible to call off or change once they were set in motion days before at
command headquarters, and men often found themselves attacking into uncut barbed wire.
The troops were now trained to be more flexible and independent, so they could assume other
roles if their comrades were killed. Also, heavy emphasis was put on artillery and infantry
coordination. The next major target for the Canadians was Vimy Ridge, held by the Germans
since 1914. On April 9th, 1917, at 5:30 a.m., the attack on Vimy Ridge began. The battle
was long and hard, and was actually orchestrated primarily by Byng, but by the end of the day
the result was clear. The Canadiens had won a stunning victory and emerged from the battle
with a reputation as shock troops.
I’m not actually going to go over the individual battles Currie’s men fought now; I’ll
do that in our regular episodes when we get to them, but let’s just say that by that
summer Sir Henry Sinclair Horne, commander of the first British army, said “The 1st
Canadian Division is the pride and wonder of the British army.”
Byng was promoted to army command and in June, Arthur Currie was knighted and took command
of the Canadian Corps as lieutenant general. In 3 years he’d gone from commanding a small
militia to war hero with 100,000 men at his disposal. Over the rest of the war, Currie’s
men- the Canadians- fought in battle after battle and indeed had a long string of successes,
but of course at a huge cost in men. All of this will be covered in this show in the years
to come, sorry to be a jerk about it and not say anything here.
One thing I will say here is that Currie’s financial shadiness came to light in 1917,
and the Canadian Cabinet was a bit concerned that their big hero was one court case away
from being branded a felon. Currie borrowed money to pay back his theft, but left several
ministers in Ottawa wondering about the character of their great leader.
So... post war. On August 23, 1919, Currie was appointed inspector general of the militia
forces in Canada. He left that position in May 1920 to become principal and vice-chancellor
of McGill University, a position he held until his death in November 1933.
Sir Arthur Currie is widely considered one of the ablest generals on either side during
the First World War. His emphasis on meticulous planning and preparation, and his recognition
of artillery’s importance to trench warfare no doubt helped to shorten the war, and his
soldiers enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as crack troops. As you may imagine, he remains
a Canadian hero today.
This was, like all of our bios, just a brief look at Currie; I encourage you all to look
him up to learn more, particularly his battles in 1917 and 1918. If you’d like to see more
about the Canadian effort in World War 1, check out our Canada Special right here:
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