CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS 341
Three: Captain L. C. A. Curties, East Kent Regiment, attached Machine Gun Corps, killed in action at Hulloch, in the Battle of Loos, 26 September 1915
1914-15 STAR (Capt. L. C. Curties. E. Kent. R.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS (Capt. L. C. Curties. E. Kent. R.) extremely fine (3)
£400-500
Lionel Charles Alfred Curties was born on 13 March 1885 in Wakefield, the son of the Rev. Thomas Arthur Curties, Vicar of St Michael’s, Wakefield, and was educated at Lancing College. Employed as an Articled Clerk with F. G. Stenning of Maidstone, he qualified as a solicitor in 1909.
On 23 August 1905, he obtained a commission in the 1st Volunteer Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) Militia but resigned his commission on 19th of May 1907. He enlisted at Westminster as Private 3642 in the 19th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (2nd Public Schools) and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion East Kent Regiment on 22 September 1914. He was promoted Lieutenant in November 1914 and Captain in June 1915, attached to the Staff of the 72nd Infantry Brigade, being appointed Brigade Machine Gun Officer. Initially reported missing, he was later confirmed as killed in action at Hulloch in the battle of Loos, 26 September 1915, aged 30. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. He is also commemorated on the Lancing College War Memorial, Great Chart War Memorial and a private Memorial at Great Chart Churchyard, Kent. He was a published poet.
Conan Doyle, The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1915 refers: “About mid-day the Twenty-fourth Division had reached a point across the Lens-Hulluch road which was ahead of anything attained in this quarter the day before. They were up against unbroken wire with an enfilade rifle and machine-gun fire from both flanks and from Hulluch on their left rear, as well as a heavy shell-fire of asphyxiating shells. A gallant attempt was made to pierce the wires, which were within fifty yards of the German position, but it was more than flesh and blood could do. They were driven back, and in the retirement across the long slope which they had traversed their losses were greatly increased. Their wounded had to be left behind, and many of these fell afterwards into the hands of the Germans, receiving honourable treatment from them. The losses would have been heavier still had it not been that the Suffolks in support lined up in a sunken road three hundred yards south of Hulluch, and kept down the fire of the machine guns. Some of these raw battalions endured losses which have never been exceeded in this war before they could finally persuade themselves that the task was an impossible one.” The 8th West Kents lost their Colonel, Romer, 24 officers, and 610 men. ‘A Private in his Brigade wrote saying how his men loved him, and added: “They would have done anything for the Captain”.’ (Roll of Honour, Marquis de Ruvigny refers). The circumstance of Curties’s death was one of many in which the indefatigable Mrs. Elizabeth Quinton Strouts involved herself. She had set up a trust to which 124 men from the village of Great Chart signed up. She organised letters and parcels to be sent to them wherever they were serving across the globe. “In addition, she personally investigated every account of local men going missing in action and went to see those recovering from injuries, while also organising others to make such visits. By the end of the war – in which one in five enlisted men from the village were killed (a total of 27) – she had orchestrated the sending of some 5,921 parcels and 989 letters – including, one year, the despatching of 65 Christmas cakes around the globe. There were enough funds left over to finance a village memorial, the construction of which, she oversaw. It was finally unveiled on August 4 1921, the anniversary of the outbreak. Mrs Strouts herself died in 1945, aged 78”. The Telegraph (8 April 2014) refers. At the dedication of the war memorial in 1921, the names of the fallen were placed along “The Street” leading up to the War Memorial in remembrance. This remarkable tradition has been renewed recently and the ‘signs’ appear up “The Street” in order of the dates on which each man fell.
Sold together with some research including three copies of published photographs. Note: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Roll and Soldiers Died incorrectly record the date of death as 26 October 1915.
342
Three: Second Lieutenant T. E. A. Spearing, Northumberland Fusiliers, formerly Honourable Artillery Company, wounded at La Boiselle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916
1914-15 STAR (2182 Pte. T. E. A. Spearing. H.A.C.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS (
2.Lieut. T. E. A. Spearing.) good very fine (3)
£180-220
Thomas Edward Albert Spearing was born in Tooting, Surrey, in 1894, and attested for the Honourable Artillery Company on 8 September 1914. He served with the 1st Battalion Honourable Artillery Company during the Great War on the Western Front from 23 January 1915, in and out of the line until 18 March 1916. Commissioned Second Lieutenant on 19 March 1916, he was posted to 21st
(2nd Tyneside Scottish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. On 1 July 1916, Second Lieutenant Spearing was wounded at La Boiselle and sent home on H.M. Hospital Ship Panama on 6 July 1916. By 20 July 1916, he was receiving treatment at The Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, London. On 31 July 1917, he wrote to the War Office applying for a disablement pension…”my left elbow was destroyed by gun-fire on 1st July 1916 and in consequence the arm is practically useless”. He relinquished his commission on 19 May 1918 on account of ill-health caused by wounds (received a Silver War Badge). During the Second World War he served as an A. R.P. Warden in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and died there in 1963.
The Story of the Tyneside Scottish refers: ‘As the watches marked the half-hour (7:30 am) the two huge mines on the flanks of La Boiselle simultaneously exploded with a concussion that shook the ground for miles round, and the attack began… Officers and men had been literally mowed down, but in rapidly diminishing numbers they had resolutely pushed on to meet their deaths close to the enemy’s wire. No-man’s-land was reported to be heaped with dead… Our losses in killed were unnecessarily heavy owing to the fact that the Germans deliberately fired at and killed any wounded officer or man lying helpless in front of their trenches who made the slightest movement or showed any sign of life. Some officers and men waited until after dark and then managed with great difficulty to crawl towards our lines, and were assisted over the parapet by men who went over to meet them.’
The 2nd and 3rd Battalions had at first penetrated to some trenches several hundred yards beyond the German’s first line trench, but after severe fighting had been forced back by superior numbers to the first line trench. Major Acklom had taken command of the remnants of the two battalions and held about 300 yards of enemy front line and a short length of a support trench further on. The former trench was to become invaluable on 2 July 1916 as the tunnel constructed in connection with the mine south of La Boiselle ran up to this enemy front line trench, thus enabling the wounded to be evacuated and communications to get through.
21st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers casualties on 1 July 1916 are noted in the War Diary as: 12 Officers and 55 men killed, 10 Officers and 256 men wounded and 116 men missing.
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