Horace Augustus Curtis
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Horace Augustus Curtis VC (March 7, 1891 - July 1, 1968) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
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Military career
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After the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, Horace volunteered to join the Army and was medically examined at St Austell and passed fit for duty on 12th September. He was attested into The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (D. C. L. I) at Bodmin on 14th September as No.15833 Private Curtis. However, 4 days later he was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (R. D Fus) on 18th September 1914.
Prior to the outbreak of war, the R. D Fus consisted of 2 regular Battalions, The 1st and 2nd Battalions. It also had 3 reserve Battalions, the 3rd Battalion (Kildare Rifles Militia), 4th Battalion (Queens Own Royal Dublin City Militia) and 5th Battalion (Dublin County Light Infantry Militia). Following the outbreak of war, a further 6 Battalions were formed. The 6th and 7th (Service) Battalions in August 1914, the 8th and 9th (Service) Battalions in September 1914 and the 10th (Service) Battalion in 1915 and the 11th (Reserve) Battalion in 1916.
The 7th (Service) Battalion was formed at Naas in August 1914 as part of Kitchener's First New Army and was assigned to 30th Brigade in the 10th (Irish) Division at the Curragh. The 30th Brigade also contained the 6th Battalion R. D Fus and the 6th and 7th Battalions of the Royal Munster Fusiliers.
It is not clear why Horace transferred to the R. D Fus, perhaps the D. C. L. I lists were full. Recruiting in Ireland in August 1914 was not as satisfactory as in England and in consequence, Lord Kitchener decided early in September to transfer a number of recruits for whom no room could be found in English regiments to fill up the ranks of the 10th Division. Despite these transferees, the Division and its battalions consisted of Irishmen (apart from the 10th Battalion Hampshire Regiment) The 7th Battalion R. D Fus had just started forming up in August at Naas in Ireland and presumably Horace proceeded there to commence his training at the Curragh in County Kildare. The 30th Brigade moved to Dublin in February 1915 and then embarked for England in May 1915 and onto the Bassingstoke area where intensive training of the 10th Division took place for the next 3 months. During that time, The Division was inspected by King George V on 28th May at Hackwood Park and by Field Marshall, Lord Kitchener on 1st June.
As a result of these inspections the following Divisional Orders were issued
"Lieutenant-General Sir B Mahon received His Majesty's command to publish a divisional order to say how pleased His Majesty was to have had an opportunity of seeing the 10th Irish Division and how impressed he was with the appearance and physical fitness of the troops. His Majesty, the King recognises that it is due to the keeness and co-operation of all ranks that the 10th Division has reached such a high standard of efficiency. The General Officer Commanding 10th Irish Division has much pleasure in informing the troops that Field-Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, the Secretary of State for War, expressed himself as highly satisfied with all he saw of the 10th Division at the inspection today." Order no. 34 1st June 1915.
The Division embarked from Devonport on 11th July 1915, the 7th battalion R. D Fus aboard H. M. T Alaunia and via Malta and Alexandria, the 7th landed at the island of Mitylene off the Turkish coast on 25th July 1915. Horace's service with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (M. E. F) dated from 10th July 1915. The Battalion left Mitylene and landed at Sulva Bay, Gallipoli peninsular, Turkey on 7th August 1915.
Other parts of the Division had been engaged with the enemy prior to the 7th Battalion arriving and had suffered severe losses, which was also to befall the 7th Battalion. In his book "The Tenth Division in Gallipoli" Major Bryan Cooper, who served with the Division, estimates that by the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the Tenth Division had lost 75% of its original strength killed or wounded. In his book "Ireland's Forgotten 10th" Capt. Jeremy Stanley states 3,000 men were killed or died from wounds, 25% of the Division's strength. It is difficult to imagine the emotions Horace must have experienced in those first few months of warfare as no doubt he witnessed the deaths of friends he had made and colleagues he had trained with over the previous year.
After action in Gallipoli, the 10th Division sailed for the base island of Lemnos (Mudros Harbour) on 30th September and in early October left for the port of Salonica in Greece. During a long stay in this theatre of war (Macedonia) and bitter fighting, Horace earned promotion during 1916 from unpaid Lance Corporal on 7th February to full Sergeant on 17th November 1916. He was also mentioned in dispatches in the London Gazette on 21st July 1917.
After almost 2 years here, the Division sailed for Alexandria in September 1917 for Egypt and the allied offensive against the Turks in Palestine. A further 8 months later in April 1918, the 6th Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the 7th Battalion R. D Fus had left the 30th Brigade, 10th Division and returned to Egypt in order to join units in France fighting the German advance.
On 23rd May 1918, the 7th Battalion left Alexandria and landed at Marsailles in Southern France on 31st May. A few days later on 6th June the Battalion was reduced to a Cadre. Surplus personnel, of whom Horace was one, were absorbed by the 2nd Battalion R. D Fus.
This was to be the fourth theatre of war that Horace fought in (Gallipoli, Macedonia, Palestine, France). He had served with the M. E. F and the Eygyptian Expeditionary Force. He was now a member of the British Expeditionary Force (B. E. F) France and Belgium.
On 20th June 1918, Horace returned to England where he went to Bermondsley Military Hospital in London for treatment for Malaria, broken by a furlough, home leave to Fiddlers Green between 24th July until 3rd August. The first time I believe for nearly 4 long years.
He was finally cleared to return to his unit in France on 19th August and was back in France by 1st September and to the Front by 21st September.
VC action
On 18th October 1918, No. 14107 Sergeant Horace A Curtis, 2nd Battalion R. D Fus fought in action near Le Cateau that earned him the Victoria Cross. The following is the official citation, which appeared in the London Gazette on 6th January 1919.
No.14107 Sjt. Horace Augustus Curtis.2nd Battalion, R. Dub. Fus (Newlyn East, Cornwall) For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty East of Le Cateau on the morning of 18th October 1918, when in attack his platoon came unexpectedly under intense machine-gun fire. Realising that the attack would fail unless the enemy guns were silenced, Sjt Curtis, without hesitation, rushed forward through our own barrage and the enemy fire and killed and wounded the teams of two of the guns, whereupon the remaining four guns surrendered. Then turning his attention to a train-load of reinforcements, he succeeded in capturing over 100 enemy before his comrades joined him. His valour and disregard of danger inspired all.
His VC was presented to him by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8th March 1919.
After the war
On 31st January 1919 he was back home and starting 28 days demobilisation leave and transferred to Class "Z" Army reserve on 23rd March 1919. Curtis was finally discharged on 31st March 1920.
He joined the 5th (Territorial) Battalion D. C. L. I on a 3-year engagement at St Columb on 5th May 1920. Private 5431368, he was rapidly promoted to Sergeant and by 27th August 1920 was W. O 2 (CSM).
On 20th Decemebr 1921, Horace transferred to the 4/5th D. C. L. I and on 19th May 1923 his service was terminated at the end of his engagement.
Discounting his absence through illness, Horace had been with his new Battalion and in a new theatre of war only a few months when he won his VC. He rarely spoke of his achievement, humbled that he had been singled out for such an act when he had witnessed friends and colleagues carrying out similar acts of courage over those 4 long years, without official recognition, many of them losing their lives in the process. The overpowering emotion he recalled at the time of his action was one of anger. Perhaps anger that he had had to return from England and his loved ones, perhaps anger at witnessing more senseless loss of life, or perhaps he had inherited the fiery temperament of the Irish having served alongside them since 1914. Whatever, he had become a fine soldier. From being a Cornish labourer with no military service and having never left the County of Cornwall, he served in four theatres of war over a 4-year period against the armies of Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria and he achieved the rank of Sergeant.
References
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- VCs of the First World War - The Final Days 1918 (Gerald Gliddon, 2000)