Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

David Henry CURRIE 

Military Medal

 Action for which commended –

‘On the night 26th Aug.1918 at ST.MARTIN’S WOOD east of PROYART, L/Cpl Anderson and Drivers Currie and Price displayed conspicuous courage and devotion to duty. When the Battalion was ordered to relieve the front line they were endeavouring to convey to the Battalion a hot meal, with great persistence and pluck and with great judgment the limbers safely through the wood, which was saturated with gas and under heavy shell fire and delivered the food containers close to the firing line. In spite of the difficulties with a devotion that job and their courage and determination enabled the front line troops to obtain a hot meal and materially helped to sustain troops already much worn with fatigue and suffering.’

Not all bravery medals were received with great fanfare in the field or on their return home. Living in Richmond in 1919, David Currie would have to write to Base Records Office in Melbourne the following letter on May 7, seven months after arriving home from war:

Dear Sir/                                                                                 Having whilst serving as No.889 of the 7th Battalion been recommended for some medal, I would like to know if there is any record of it in Melbourne. I have just received word from an N.C.O in the Battalion, that I was awarded the Military Medal and have also been told by three men who have returned within the last few days, but I have no official notification awaiting a reply.                             I remain, Yours Obediently, D.H Currie 

No doubt he would have been crestfallen to receive the following prompt response from the Base Records just five days later on May 12, 1919.

Dear Sir,

I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 7th instant, and to state no advice has been received to date that you were awarded the Military medal or any other military decoration. The Army Form B103, which furnishes a complete record of your services, is to hand, but there is no mention of any award. Yours faithfully, Major Officer i/c Base Records.

According to David Curries’ service record he recommendation for a Military Medal would become official just days before Base Records responded to him in the negative. The news would not reach him till much later in the year.

Back in Huntly the news of his bravery medal was not known. The Bendigoian newspaper reported on November 14, 1918. P.3 that:  Mr. and Mrs. Dave Currie, of Huntly, have been notified that their son, Driver D. H Currie, 7th Battalion is returning to Australia on furlough. He enlisted in August, 1914, and sailed with the first reinforcements, being then only 19 years of age. [1]

When David Currie returned, the focus in the district was on well-known local Lieutenant Wilfred Tucker also from Huntly who had been killed in Action in 1916 at Pozieres.

The Bendigo Advertiser reported on December 5th, 1918: HUNTLY HERO GREETED.

Driver D. Currie, of Huntly, one of the original Anzacs, who, with the late Lieut. L. W. Tucker, D.C.M., enlisted from Huntly early after war broke out, arrived home on Tuesday. In the evening he was "warmly welcomed by the officers and brethren of the Loyal Sir Henry Barkly Lodge, of which he is a member. A public welcome is being arranged at Huntly.[2]

David Currie was Cyanider, a hazardous occupation involving the chemical removal of gold from Quartz ore. Huntly was downstream from the alluvial diggings on Bendigo creek and the slag heaps of cyaniders became a very visual sight of this industry.

Handwritten letter from David Currie to the Base Records office, Melbourne enquiring of his Military Medal. Dated May 7, 1919. NAA Discovering ANZACS - https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/139361/30

Response from Base Records Office to David Currie: Dated May 12,1919. NAA Discovering ANZACS - https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/139361/29

NO PHOTO OF DAVID CURRIE YET DISCOVERED.

SERVICE DETAILS:  

Service Number: 899
Born: Charlton
Religion: Roman Catholic
Occupation: Cyanider
Address Huntly, via Bendigo,                                                       Marital status: Single

Age at enlistment: 19
Next of kin: Father, David Currie, Huntly
Enlistment date: 18 August 1914
Unit name: 7th Battalion, H Company
Embarkation: A20 Hororata on 19 October 1914
Final rank: Driver
Military Medal: Work near Proyart on 26 August 1918.

Source: Commonwealth Gazette' No. 109
Date: 15 September 1919

Fate: Returned to Australia 16 October 1918

On the night 26th Aug.1918 at ST.MARTIN’S WOOD east of PROYART.

The ‘Drivers’ provided crucial support to the infantry man, in charge of horses moving munitions, equipment. On the night at Proyart on August 26, 1918, he and fellow Driver Reg Price (an Englishmen who enlisted in Melbourne in the AIF) and ably led by Lance Corporal Donald Anderson from Rushworth forged through the heavy shelling and fighting to deliver desperately needed food to the troops in the front line. All three would survive the war. Heroic actions such as these contributed to 100 days of victories that the Allies had over the Germans at this period of 1918. Eleven weeks later the armistice would be called, the Germans defeated.  

[1] Bendigoian Newspaper Novemebr 14, 1918. Page 3
[2] Bendigo Advertiser, December 5th, 1918. Page 5