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.); British War and Victory Medals (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.