Arthur Currie
Sir Arthur William Currie, was a senior officer of the Canadian Army who fought during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. Currie's success was based on his ability to rapidly adapt brigade tactics to the exigencies of trench warfare, using set piece operations and bite-and-hold tactics. He is generally considered to be among the most capable commanders of the Western Front, and one of the finest commanders in Canadian military history.
Currie began his military career in 1897 as a part-time soldier in the Canadian militia while making his living as a teacher and later as an insurance salesman and real estate speculator. Currie rose quickly through the ranks: commissioned as an officer in 1900, promoted to captain in 1901, then major in 1906 and became an artillery regimental commander in 1909. In 1913 Currie accepted the command of the newly created 50th Regiment Gordon Highlanders of Canada. Finding himself in debt following a real estate crash in Victoria, Currie embezzled ten thousand dollars earmarked for regimental uniforms into his personal accounts to pay off his debts. When the First World War broke out Canadian Minister of Militia Sam Hughes appointed Currie as commander of the 2nd Canadian Brigade. Following the Second Battle of Ypres Currie was promoted to major-general and commander of the 1st Canadian Division. Following the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Canadian Corps commander Julian Byng was promoted to general and Currie, the 1st Canadian Division commander, was promoted to lieutenant-general and assumed command of the Canadian Corps. Upon returning to Canada, Currie was promoted to general and was made Inspector General of the Canadian Army. Although he had only a high school diploma, Currie became the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in 1920, holding this post until his death in 1933.
Early life
Arthur Currie was born on 5 December 1875 to William Garner Curry and Jane Patterson on their farm near the hamlet of Napperton, Ontario, just west of Strathroy. He was the third in a family of eight children and grew up on the homestead of his paternal grandparents, John Corrigan and Jane Garner. Currie's grandparents had emigrated from Ireland in 1838 to escape religious strife, and upon their arrival in Canada they had converted from Catholicism and Anglicanism to Methodism, changing the family name from Corrigan to Curry. Arthur Currie modified the spelling of his surname from Curry to Currie in 1897.Currie was educated in local common schools and at the Strathroy District Collegiate Institute, where he proved to be a good student especially interested in literature. He had plans to pursue a professional career in law or medicine; however, the death of his father when Arthur was fifteen made this impossible due to his limited financial means. Currie instead pursued teacher training, but he was unable to secure a job and returned to high school to complete an honours certificate in order to gain university entrance. In May 1894, mere months before his final exams, Currie quarrelled with one of his teachers, and subsequently left high school to seek his fortune in British Columbia, hoping to take advantage of the financial boom resulting from the construction of the transcontinental railway. However, Currie found no prospects outside of teaching, so he qualified as a teacher in British Columbia and took a teaching position on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria, British Columbia. In 1896 Currie moved to Victoria, taking a position at Boy's Central School and later Victoria High School.
Early military career
On 6 May 1897 Currie joined the Canadian Militia as a part-time gunner for the 5th Field Artillery Regiment. Currie achieved the rank of corporal in 1900 and was soon after offered an officer's commission, which would give him a much higher status in the social circles of Victoria. A military commission was however an expensive proposition. Officers were expected to provide their own set of tailored uniforms and to donate their pay to the officer's mess. Currie was discouraged by his financial prospects as a teacher; and consequently, in February 1900, he left teaching and took a position as an insurance salesman with Matson & Coles, a local insurance firm. On 14 August 1901 Currie married Lucy Chaworth-Musters, who had been raised by Currie's aunt and uncle in British Columbia after being abandoned by her British military officer father following the death of her mother in childbirth.Currie took on his role as militia officer seriously. He attended every available course offered by the British Army Contingent at Work Point Barracks in Esquimalt, often ordered military text books from London and was found on the shooting range every Saturday. He was a keen marksman and was elected president of the British Columbia Rifle Association in 1905. Currie was promoted to captain in November 1901, and then to major in 1906. By September 1909, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, commanding the 5th Regiment. Apart from his interest in the militia, Currie was also an active Freemason, rising to the position of deputy grandmaster of the Victoria District of Freemasonry in 1907. He also served two years as president of the Young Men's Liberal Association of Victoria, and several times was suggested as a candidate for the provincial legislature.
In addition to his military career, Currie continued to be active in business. He was appointed head of the Matson Insurance Firm in 1904 when Sam Matson, who had many business interests beyond his insurance firm, decided to concentrate his energy on publishing the Daily Colonist. With a land speculation boom in Victoria in full swing, Currie and a Victoria businessman, R. A. Power, formed Currie & Power in 1908. Currie invested heavily in the real estate market. The firm was a success until 1912 when property prices began to decline. In 1913 Currie's financial situation deteriorated rapidly as the value of his real estate holdings decreased and he became financially over-extended. In August, Currie's five-year term as commander of the 5th Regiment came to a close and he faced a forced retirement from the Canadian Militia at the age of 38. At this critical juncture, he was approached to take command of a new militia regiment.
Following the Canadian federal election of 1911, Minister of Militia and Defence Sam Hughes had ordered a rapid expansion of the national force. The large number of Scottish citizens of Victoria appealed for the formation of a Highland regiment in Victoria to augment the 88th Regiment Victoria Fusiliers, which had been formed in 1912. On 15 August 1913 the government authorized the formation of the 50th Regiment Gordon Highlanders of Canada. The originally designated commanding officer for the new regiment failed to qualify for the post and Currie was approached as a logical replacement. Currie initially turned down the idea, likely recognizing that the cost of the new Highland uniforms and mess bills would only add to his financial problems. His subordinate and friend, Major Garnet Hughes, Sam Hughes' son, was responsible for persuading Currie to reconsider and accept the position. Currie attended the Militia Staff Course conducted by Major Louis Lipsett, future commander of the 3rd Canadian Division, and qualified in March 1914.
Currie was desperate to avoid personal bankruptcy, which would have resulted in a loss in social standing and forced him to resign his commission. On 31 July 1914, Currie received from the Militia Department with which to purchase new uniforms. Instead of using the funds to pay contractor Moore, Taggart and Co for the regimental uniforms, Currie embezzled the funds to pay off his personal debts. The 50th Regiment's honorary colonel, William Coy, had promised to underwrite the regiment with $35,000, and Currie planned to use the funds to pay the uniform contractor. Unfortunately for Currie, Coy did not follow through with his financial commitment to the regiment, leaving Currie's accounting sleight-of-hand potentially exposed.
When World War I broke out and Canada found itself at war on 4 August 1914, Currie was offered command of Military District No.11British Columbia. When he turned this down, he was then offered command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Canadian Expeditionary Force's 1st Canadian Division. Currie considered turning down this offer as well so he could attempt to solve his financial woes. He once again changed his mind at the urging of Garnet Hughes. Currie's promotion to brigadier-general was confirmed on 29 September 1914, and he took command of the 2nd Brigade at the Valcartier Camp in Quebec. When the 50th Regiment's acting commanding officer, Major Cecil Roberts, wrote to him inquiring as to the status of the uniform grant, Currie ignored the correspondence and sailed overseas with his brigade in October 1914.
World War I
Brigade commander
The 1st Canadian Division spent the winter of 1914–15 training in England, and were sent to France in February 1915. After a period of indoctrination in the realities of trench warfare, they took control of a section of trench in the Ypres Salient on 17 April 1915. Only five days later, the Germans used poison gas for the first time on the Western Front. French colonial troops on the Canadians' left flank broke, leaving a long hole in the Allied line. In the chaos that followed, Currie proved his worth as a leader by assessing the situation, and coolly issuing commands from his brigade headquarters even as it was gassed and then destroyed by fire. Currie cobbled together a fluid defence and counterattacked. At one point, he personally went back to the rear to try to convince two regiments of British reinforcements to move forward. After several days of fierce fighting, Allied counterattacks re-established a stable defensive line, denying the Germans a breakthrough.Currie's leadership during the Second Battle of Ypres was a source of dispute by British historian James Edward Edmonds, who argued that Currie and his 2nd Canadian Brigade performed poorly at Ypres. Currie, supported by the Canadian official historian Colonel Archer Fortescue Duguid, waged a vigorous defense, charging that Edmonds was seeking to diminish the Canadian contribution to the Second Battle of Ypres. Edmonds wrongly accused Currie of ordering his men to retreat on 24 April 1915 because of the chaos caused by the chlorine gas and fierce attacks of the German infantry; Currie and Duguid said it was Brigadier-General Richard Turner, commanding the 3rd Canadian Brigade on Currie's left, who had ordered a retreat without orders, leaving Currie with an exposed left flank. Canadian historian Timothy Travers also argued that Edmonds was very unfair to Currie since the 1st Canadian Division occupied a position that would have been difficult to defend even under normal conditions, without considering the effects of the first mass use of poison gas and the complete withdrawal of French forces on their left flank. Although acknowledging that Currie had made mistakes, Travers maintained that unlike the Algerians who fled, Currie's 2nd Brigade held its ground at Ypres, consequently losing 46% of its total strength either killed or wounded over two days of fighting.
Following the battle, Currie was promoted to major-general, and given command of the entire 1st Canadian Division. He was also appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and a Commander of the Legion d'Honneur.