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One of the most significant Victoria Crosses in Canadian military history will stay in Canada.
The medal, the Commonwealth’s highest honour for valour in the face of the enemy, was awarded to Lt.-Col David Vivian Currie for his role in the bloody fighting in the Falaise Pocket in the months after D-Day.
A foreign collector bought Currie’s VC at a private auction in London, England last September for $550,000, plus an additional $110,000 auction house fee.
But because the medal was considered “of outstanding cultural significance and national importance,” Canadians were given a six-month grace period to top the foreign offer. The war museum stepped up, bolstered by contributions from Currie’s former unit, the North Saskatchewan Regiment, the museum’s donor-supported National Collection Fund, the federal government and private citizens.
“It is inspiring to see how many Canadians have come forward to help,” Mark O’Neill, president and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of History, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are profoundly grateful for government support and for the private donations that enabled us to acquire the Currie medal set.”
Major David V. Currie, VC, of the South Alberta Regiment in a Humber I scout car, Halte, Netherlands, November 12, 1944.
Currie’s Second World War VC will be on display at the war museum until the end of May alongside two other VCs from the First World War the museum has recently acquired. Cpl. Colin Barron was awarded his VC during the fighting in Passchendaele in November 1917, the same month Lt.-Col. Harcus Strachan of the The Fort Garry Horse was awarded his VC for leading a cavalry charge on a German machine-gun post. The museum now owns 38 Canadian Victoria Crosses.
Currie, a native of Sutherland, Sask., was one of only 16 Canadians awarded the VC during the Second World War. His was the only VC earned during the brutal fighting in Normandy during the summer of 1944 after the D-Day invasion.
Allied forces had a huge German team surrounded when Currie, then a major, and his small group of tanks and infantry were tasked with sealing the Germans’ only exit from the trap at the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives.
Over the course of the battle, Currie’s force inflicted 800 casualties, destroyed seven tanks and took 2,100 prisoners. Currie’s crew took heavy casualties, too. Every other officer in his command was killed or wounded. Currie himself slept for only one hour during the entire battle.
“During the next 36 hours, the Germans hurled one counterattack after another against the Canadian force but so skilfully had Major Currie organized his defensive position that these attacks were repulsed with severe casualties to the enemy after heavy fighting,” his official citation reads.
“Throughout three days and nights of fierce fighting, Major Currie’s gallant conduct and contempt for danger set a magnificent example to all ranks of the force under his command.”
Major David V. Currie (left, with pistol in hand) of The South Alberta Regiment accepting the surrender of German troops at St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France, 19 August 1944.
A famous photograph shows Currie, pistol in hand, alongside a long line of German prisoners of war. Historian C.P. Stacey said the photo was “as close as we are ever likely to come to a photograph of a man winning the Victoria Cross.”
After the war, Currie worked in the pulp and paper industry until 1959 when Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed him sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, a post he held until 1978. He died in Ottawa on June 24, 1986.
His widow, Isabel, sold the medals after his death to a Canadian collector who held them until last summer when he decided to put them up for auction. The war museum tried to buy them at auction but was outbid by the unnamed foreign collector. Since then, the medals have been kept in a safety deposit box in Kemptville because of the temporary export ban.
Currie’s grandchildren, David, Sandy and Brenda, were in Ottawa for Tuesday’s unveiling. They remember their grandfather as a kind man, devoted to his family but who rarely spoke about his war experiences.
“We knew he was a war hero and we knew he had the Victoria Cross, but to us he was just our grandfather,” said David.
Sandy said her grandfather would be proud to know his medals will stay in Canada for all Canadians to see.
Isabel, now 105, lives in an Ottawa nursing home, but was unable to attend the ceremony honouring her husband.
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
Related
查看原文...
The medal, the Commonwealth’s highest honour for valour in the face of the enemy, was awarded to Lt.-Col David Vivian Currie for his role in the bloody fighting in the Falaise Pocket in the months after D-Day.
A foreign collector bought Currie’s VC at a private auction in London, England last September for $550,000, plus an additional $110,000 auction house fee.
But because the medal was considered “of outstanding cultural significance and national importance,” Canadians were given a six-month grace period to top the foreign offer. The war museum stepped up, bolstered by contributions from Currie’s former unit, the North Saskatchewan Regiment, the museum’s donor-supported National Collection Fund, the federal government and private citizens.
“It is inspiring to see how many Canadians have come forward to help,” Mark O’Neill, president and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of History, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are profoundly grateful for government support and for the private donations that enabled us to acquire the Currie medal set.”
Major David V. Currie, VC, of the South Alberta Regiment in a Humber I scout car, Halte, Netherlands, November 12, 1944.
Currie’s Second World War VC will be on display at the war museum until the end of May alongside two other VCs from the First World War the museum has recently acquired. Cpl. Colin Barron was awarded his VC during the fighting in Passchendaele in November 1917, the same month Lt.-Col. Harcus Strachan of the The Fort Garry Horse was awarded his VC for leading a cavalry charge on a German machine-gun post. The museum now owns 38 Canadian Victoria Crosses.
Currie, a native of Sutherland, Sask., was one of only 16 Canadians awarded the VC during the Second World War. His was the only VC earned during the brutal fighting in Normandy during the summer of 1944 after the D-Day invasion.
Allied forces had a huge German team surrounded when Currie, then a major, and his small group of tanks and infantry were tasked with sealing the Germans’ only exit from the trap at the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives.
Over the course of the battle, Currie’s force inflicted 800 casualties, destroyed seven tanks and took 2,100 prisoners. Currie’s crew took heavy casualties, too. Every other officer in his command was killed or wounded. Currie himself slept for only one hour during the entire battle.
“During the next 36 hours, the Germans hurled one counterattack after another against the Canadian force but so skilfully had Major Currie organized his defensive position that these attacks were repulsed with severe casualties to the enemy after heavy fighting,” his official citation reads.
“Throughout three days and nights of fierce fighting, Major Currie’s gallant conduct and contempt for danger set a magnificent example to all ranks of the force under his command.”
Major David V. Currie (left, with pistol in hand) of The South Alberta Regiment accepting the surrender of German troops at St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France, 19 August 1944.
A famous photograph shows Currie, pistol in hand, alongside a long line of German prisoners of war. Historian C.P. Stacey said the photo was “as close as we are ever likely to come to a photograph of a man winning the Victoria Cross.”
After the war, Currie worked in the pulp and paper industry until 1959 when Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed him sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, a post he held until 1978. He died in Ottawa on June 24, 1986.
His widow, Isabel, sold the medals after his death to a Canadian collector who held them until last summer when he decided to put them up for auction. The war museum tried to buy them at auction but was outbid by the unnamed foreign collector. Since then, the medals have been kept in a safety deposit box in Kemptville because of the temporary export ban.
Currie’s grandchildren, David, Sandy and Brenda, were in Ottawa for Tuesday’s unveiling. They remember their grandfather as a kind man, devoted to his family but who rarely spoke about his war experiences.
“We knew he was a war hero and we knew he had the Victoria Cross, but to us he was just our grandfather,” said David.
Sandy said her grandfather would be proud to know his medals will stay in Canada for all Canadians to see.
Isabel, now 105, lives in an Ottawa nursing home, but was unable to attend the ceremony honouring her husband.
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
Related
查看原文...
