b. 07/03/1891 St Anthony, Cornwall. d. 01/07/1968 Redruth, Cornwall
Horace Augustus Curtis (1891-1918) was born on 7th March 1891 at Cellars, St Anthony-in-Roseland, St Just-in-Roseland, Cornwall. He was baptised on 1st May 1891 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in St Mawes. His father, Thomas, from Newlyn, Cornwall was a coal miner. He married Catherine “Kate” Meluish nee Ball from St Goran, Cornwall, on 18th November 1882 at the Registry Office, St Columb, Cornwall. Thomas had become a gamekeeper by 1891. Horace had four siblings – Hilda, Eldred, Wilfred, and Henry.
Horace A Curtis VC
Tragically, Thomas Curtis died when Horace was only four years old and the census of 1901 describes his widow as a pauper. It was around this time that the family moved out of the area as the cottage had come with the Game Keepers job. Catherine and her four children moved to Fiddlers Green near Newlyn East. Like many other young men in the area Horace became china clay worker as soon as he had completed his education.
A few weeks after the outbreak of the 1st World War, Horace travelled to Bodmin and enlisted with the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. He was attested into The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI) at Bodmin on 14 September as No.15833 Private Curtis. Only four days later he was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, because of a shortage of men in that Battalion.
The 7th (Service) Battalion was assigned to 30th Brigade in the 10th (Irish) Division at the Curragh. The 30th Brigade also contained the 6th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the 6th and 7th Battalions of the Royal Munster Fusiliers. The 30th Brigade moved to Dublin in February 1915 and then embarked for England in May 1915 and onto the Basingstoke area where they underwent training 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 Marshal, Lord Kitchener on 1st June.
The Division embarked from Devonport on the 11th July 1915 aboard H.M.T. Alaunia. They called at Malta and Alexandria and landed on the island of Mitylene off the Turkish Coast on the 25th July. The Battalion then moved on to Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey on the 7th August. After Gallipoli, the 10th Division sailed for Greece. During a long stay in the Macedonian theatre of war and bitter fighting, Horace earned promotion in 1916 from unpaid Lance Corporal, on 7th February, to fully paid Sergeant on 17th November. He was also mentioned in Dispatches in the London Gazette on 21st July 1917.
Horace was next to see action in Palestine and was finally sent to France on 23rd May 1918. They landed at Marseilles on the 31st of that month. On 6th June his Battalion was reduced of all surplus personnel, and Horace found himself transferred to the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. France was his fourth theatre of war.
On 20th June 1918 Horace returned to England where he went to Bermondsey Military Hospital in London for treatment for malaria and afterwards was able to return to his home in Fiddlers Green on 24th July; the first time in four years. He was finally cleared to return to his unit in France on 19th August and was back in France by 1st September. On the 21st he sent up to the battle front.
On 18th October 1918 aged 27, No. 14107 Sergeant Horace Augustus Curtis, 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers fought in action near Le Cateau that earned him the Victoria Cross. His platoon came under attack from 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.
Following his gazetting for the VC on 6th January 1919, his medal was presented to him by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8th March 1919. The Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall presented him with £150 from his fellow workers in the china clay industry on 30th October. He was discharged from the Army on 31st March 1920. He returned to the china clay industry at Newlyn, before becoming a builder. He re-enlisted in the 5th Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at St Columb on 20th May 1920 and was promoted to sergeant the same day. He was eventually discharged on 19th May 1923.
Horace married Rhoda Grose Phillips in 1922 in St Columb, Cornwall, and went on to live a normal quiet live, never mentioning his wartime experiences. A biography records that, ‘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.’ They had a daughter, Kathleen, born in 1924.
During the Second World War, Horace trained as an Air Raid Precautions Warden before serving as a lieutenant in 11th Cornwall (Newquay) Battalion, Home Guard. He commanded the St Newlyn East platoon and last appears in the Home Guard List in March 1942. He attended two VC reunions – the VC Dinner at the House of Lords on 9th November 1929 and the Victory Day Celebration Dinner at The Dorchester, London on 8th June 1946. The last few years of his life were plagued with illness and he was virtually paralysed towards the end.
Horace died aged 77 in Camborne-Redruth District Hospital on 1st July 1968, with many of the people around him having no idea that he was a hero. He was cremated at Penmount Crematorium, Truro, Cornwall following a funeral at St Newlyn East Methodist Church. His ashes were scattered in the Garden of Remembrance on Lawn E. He is named in the Book of Remembrance. He is commemorated with Curtis VC Close in St Newlyn East, a VC commemorative stone at St Newlyn East War Memorial (unveiled 11th November 2018), and is named on the Irish Infantry Regiments VC Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire.
In addition to his VC, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. The VC was sold at a Christie’s auction of 27th November 1990 for £7,800 and at a Glendinning’s auction of 25th March 1992 for £10,000 to Lord Ashcroft. The medal is held in the Lord Ashcroft Collection at the National Army Museum, Chelsea. The location of his campaign medals is unknown.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: LORD ASHCROFT COLLECTION.
BURIAL PLACE: PENMOUNT CREMATORIUM, TRURO, CORNWALL. CREMATED
ASHES SCATTERED IN GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE. LAWN E.
