Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Contributed by the great grandson of Curnow who attends Mt Compass Area School

Samuel Curnow was born in Brompton, South Australia, on the 19th of September 1914. In his early days, Sam and his family moved to a small town by the name of Tooperang, to a house next to a creek, where the family started a very successful spud farm. Samuel grew up in rigid and harsh conditions such as growing up on a farm where he had to do all the hard and miserable work. Sam enjoyed fishing for trout when he was young. He loved the taste of the fresh local rainbow trout that he caught and cooked himself. He loved to find new ways to create and architect objects and machines. At 10 years old, Sam would walk across the hill and swim and jump off the local waterfall at Tooperang.

Sam always wanted to escape and have a break from his parents and siblings. As he grew up his father started to let him work on the farm. The young man loved helping his father, he wanted to eventually take over the farm. He would later find out that farming was not the way that he should be investing all his time into.

At the age of 28, Sam Curnow enlisted to fight in World War II, enlisting as a Lance Corporal. His parents begged for him to not go and fight in the battlefront, however, Australia and the world was in his hands. Sam had no experience fighting in wars, his only experience was using a gun at home to shoot animals and pests on the farm. Travelling from Mount Compass, where he enlisted with all his neighbours, friends, and distant family members, to Adelaide with all the other soldiers from the state. Sam knew almost everyone who travelled with him to Adelaide, knowing the newly introduced soldiers would eventually split up and not see each other until the end of the war. Sam knew at the back of his mind; he would never see some of his closest friends again.

Travelling for weeks at a time on the battle front, all Samuel carried with him was his gun, backpack, drinking bottle and a packet of cigarettes. Life wasn’t the best, as the soldiers walked and travelled through the war zone, Sam counted the number of dead bodies that he walked past. Sam walked past hundreds of bodies and witnessed others being killed during his journey as a soldier. In 1944, Sam was left in captivity with five other soldiers just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Walking hours from coast to coast. Sam’s group screamed and shouted, trying to get attention from boats they could see passing, not knowing where they came from.

The Kokoda Track was a place that he would never want to visit again. Sam travelled great distances, trying to help other soldiers during his journey. One of the last nights on the battlefront, Sam sat with the group of soldiers. (Virtual War Memorial, 2021) All the soldiers asked questions about each other, where he grew up, what he did for work. He made lifelong friendships with all the soldiers, often sending them mail when he arrived back home. Samuel always talked about his children, pushing on through the war and striving to return to his family Sam had not seen for several weeks, he wanted to go home, back to his wife and children that loved him so dearly.

Samuel finally returned later in the war, being greeted by all his family and friends of Mount Compass. He was told the horrible news that his father had passed away not that long before he returned plus, his mother was very ill at home. Sam could not believe the news. This made his emotional health decrease monstrously.

A few years later, life was at its peak. Samuel was inducted into the Mount Compass Cricket Club Life Member. To top off the good run, Samuel and his wife had four beautiful children. All the children loved helping Dad on the farm from time to time. Once the children started going to school, Sam started a new project to benefit the family entirely, a new home. Just like any other family, there is always need for extension and expansion with growing and needy children. The home was full of all the latest expectations of the 50’s and was a very exciting masterpiece.

As the years passed, Sam started to notice strange occurrences happening to his wife. She began to act violently and strangely every single day. One day, while Sam and the kids were out in the fields preparing the new crops, she walked out towards the group, holding a gun that she grabbed from the cabinet and shot three of the four children. Piercing one in the shoulder, and two in the head. The youngest brother, Vic watched the scene from up the hill, he raced over and yelled for Sam’s assistance. Sam and Vic were heroes, the only survivor from this terrible incident, Jill, the strongest child of them all. It was not over, Jill still had a bullet in her skull, and she was losing breath and heartbeat quicker than ever (note that the attached newspaper article about this shooting differs from J McKenzie's account).

After 15 long dramatic years, Sam, Jill, and Vic thought they had suffered the worst. For Sam, a lot of things happened. His wife went psycho, three out of four children were shot, two out of four children died and, of course, divorce. To top off this tough situation, the farm was struggling as soon as Sam arrived back from the Kokoda Track. All spud farmers in the area were struggling due to lower prices of potatoes and declining popularity during the 60’s and 70’s. Little did Sam and the children know, Samuel had contracted Alzheimer's disease. He started committing weird financial choices and didn’t even remember his own children’s names.

While sitting in his chair at home after a long day working, Sam suffered a heart attack and died at home. At the age of 18 and 17, Jill and Vic called emergency services and Sam was taken away peacefully. He was remembered for all his trust and amazing persistence after suffering the worst after arriving home from the war.

After Sam had passed, Jill had taken over the farm during the biggest financial crisis period it had ever suffered. Jill was committed to buying new land and changing from potato farming to Dairy farming, building a new dairy near the farmhouse and buying new cattle to start profit again. After years of successful business, Jill turned the farm into one of the biggest and most successful Dairy farms in South Australia. The second largest was just down the road in Nangkita.

Vic worked as a mechanic and truck driver in Tooperang, marrying a few different women and expanding his business of his own. Jill married a farmer from Victoria by the name of Lee and had two boys of their own. (McKenzie, 2023)

As the only great-grandson of Samuel Curnow, I know that he would be very proud of his children and his grandchildren. His eldest daughter brought the farm, his pride and joy back to where it should be. His successors travelled different paths than each other, making friends and sharing a passionate story. Sam would love the way that his family has turned out, raging through all the tough times, creating the strongest children in the world emotionally.

Referencing
McKenzie, J., 2023. Sam's story [Interview] (25 May 2023).

Members, M. C. C., 2023. Mount Compass Archives. [Online] Available at: http://mtcompassarchives.org/newsletter/ [Accessed 25 May 2023].

Riddle, A., 1988. Mount Compass in World War II. In: D. Jacobs, ed. Chasing Rainbows in the Rain. Mount Compass: Mount Compass War Memorial Community Centre Inc, p. 152.

Virtual War Memorial, 2021. Samauel Berne Curnow. [Online] Available at: https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/546505 [Accessed 24 May 2023].