Fact file:

  • Matriculated: 1902

  • Born: 14 April 1883

  • Died: 9 May 1915

  • Regiment: Royal Fusiliers

  • Grave/Memorial: Ypres Menin Gate Memorial: Panels 6 and 8

Family background

b. 14 April 1883 in Beckenham, Kent, as the only son (he had one older sister) of John Mair Curwen (c.1852–1910) and Maria Mary Caroline Anne Curwen (née Hutton) (1853–1908) (m. 1876). At the time of the 1881 Census the family (plus two servants) were living in Albemarle Road, Beckenham, Kent, London SE20, but by the time of the 1901 Census the family had moved to 53, Carlisle Mansions, Petty France, Westminster, London SW1 (four servants including a butler and a coachman), and owned a second house, “The High House”, in Thames Ditton, Surrey. After his parents’ early deaths, Curwen moved out to Surbiton to live with his married sister (four servants).

 

Parents and antecedents

Curwen’s father was the son of a Cumberland mariner who, in the 1861 and 1871 Censuses, described himself as a “merchant”. In the 1881 Census Curwen’s father described himself as a “Wholesale Warehouse Man”, but in the 1901 Census he had changed this to having “no profession”, meaning that he was wealthy enough to have retired by the time he was 50.

Curwen’s mother was a dressmaker.

 

Siblings and their families

Brother of Helen Margaret (1877–1952), later Wreford-Brown after her marriage in 1901 to Charles Wreford-Brown (1866–1951); three sons; the marriage was dissolved in 1934.

Charles Wreford-Brown was a famous Association Football half-back, and probably got to know Curwen’s sister through the enthusiasm for amateur soccer, of which Wreford-Brown was a major proponent in the two decades before World War One, that he shared with her brother. Both played the game at Charterhouse and Oxford, both played for the Old Carthusians, and both played as half-backs for the Corinthians (founded 1882; now Corinthian-Casuals Football Club) – for example in the same side against a South African team in Cape Town on 5 September 1903. A grandson of the Wreford-Browns captained the nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror, when on 2 May 1982 she torpedoed the Argentinian cruiser Belgrano during the Falklands War. After Charles’s marriage to Helen was dissolved, he married (1936) Agnes Enid Lascelles Pope (1873–1941). Two of Charles Wreford-Brown’s four brothers were killed in action in World War One. Claude Wreford Wreford-Brown, DSO (1876–1915), fell on 25 May 1915, aged 38, while leading an attack on German trenches at Wieltje Farm, off the Menin Rd, South of Ypres; he was serving as a Captain in the 2/5th Battalion (Territorial Forces) of the Northumberland Fusiliers. Oswald Eric Wreford-Brown (1877–1916), a famous cricketer, died of wounds received in action, aged 39, in a Casualty Clearing Station near Corbie on the Somme on 7 July 1916 after being hit by a shell during an attack on German positions near Fricourt on 5 July 1916. He was serving as a Captain in the 9th (Service) Battalion of the same Regiment.

 

Education and professional life

Curwen attended St Peter’s Court Preparatory School, Broadstairs, Kent (now defunct), (cf. R.W.B. Levett) from c.1890 to 1896 and then Charterhouse School from 1896 to 1902, where he was a “Girdlestoneite” (i.e. a member of the House founded by a relative of M.A. Girdlestone). He played for the School at rackets (1901–02), football (1900–02), and cricket (1901–02) during a period when Charterhouse was doing very well at these sports, and after leaving school, he played football for the Old Carthusian football team that won the Arthur Dunn Cup in 1903–06, 1908 and 1910. A report on his performance as centre half during the 1901–02 football season reads as follows: “Has done very valuable service throughout the season and always plays keenly and energetically. Feeds his forwards and tackles very well, but should learn to use his head”, and a second, on his cricketing record in summer 1902, says: “His batting has improved wonderfully since last season and he has played several really fine innings; a good bowler and excellent field at cover point.”

Despite Curwen’s very poor academic performance, his sporting prowess enabled him to matriculate as a Commoner reading Modern History at Magdalen on 20 October 1902, having passed Responsions in Trinity Term 1901. On 15 December, i.e. at the end of his first term at Magdalen, President Warren rated him “beta”, but by the end of the Hilary Term 1903 he merited an alpha. In Trinity Term 1903 he passed the first part of the First Public Examination (Classics) but failed the Second Part (Holy Scripture). He failed that Second Part twice more – in Michaelmas Term 1903 and Hilary Term 1904 – so dropped back to a beta in Warren’s normally generous estimation. But he finally passed the Second Part in Trinity Term 1904 and was reinstated as an alpha, where he remained for the rest of his time at Magdalen. On 24 June 1905 the minutes of Magdalen’s Tutorial Board noted that “Mr Curwen is granted permission, if he obtains Honours in Finals for Modern History, to reside for 1 year to read for the Army, and if he only satisfy [sic] the Examiners in part of the Exam, then to read for a period not exceeding one year until he has completed the requirements for his degree.” But by later on in the same term Curwen had transferred out of the Honours School of Modern History and was reading for a Pass Degree (Groups B2 [French Language], B3 [Elements of Political Economy], and B4 [Law]) – which he continued to do, with several re-sits thrown in, until Trinity Term 1907. He finally took his BA on 28 November 1907 and his MA on 15 February 1908.

 


Wilfred John Hutton Curwen, MA
(Photo courtesy of Magdalen College, Oxford)

Warren’s tolerance of such a dismal academic performance is explained by a newspaper report on the Oxford and Cambridge cricket XI’s statistics for 1906, the year when Curwen was in the University XI and played in the side that defeated Cambridge at Lord’s in February, that Warren pasted in his Notebook for that year. Curwen was primarily a fast-medium bowler, having bowled the third highest number of overs for Oxford that season (212.4), with an average of 37.04 runs per wicket, making him the best bowler in Magdalen and sixth best in the University. He batted at No. 10, with an average of 11.92: the third best score for a member of Magdalen, and the twelfth best score for the entire University. But while at Oxford, Curwen also played Association Football for the University in his freshman year and was the Honorary Secretary of the Oxford University Association Football Club in 1905–06. Besides this, he played cricket and football for Magdalen, and also, according to the piece in The Isis which identified him, albeit with some irony, as their 297th “Isis Idol”, he represented his College “on the cinder track”. In 1908 and 1909, he captained the Association Football side for England against Bohemia; in 1906–07 and 1910 he played cricket for the MCC and in 1909 he played cricket for Surrey. As a footballer, his usual position was half-back and as a cricketer he was also a reliable batsman and “a veritable ‘hold-all’ at cover-point”. He seems, however, not to have been really outstanding in either sport, for one report described him as “a sound, hard-working half-back”, but “not by any means a brilliant player” (1906) and another characterized his “innings [as a batsman] in which there were many good strokes” as merely “useful”. Indeed, by 1909, one has the distinct sense that his prowess as a sportsman was on the wane. Nevertheless, he was a member of I Zingari (Cricket), the Free Foresters (Cricket), the Corinthians (Football), the Harlequins (Rugby), the MCC, and the Bath Club, 34 Dover St, London, W1, a sports-themed gentleman’s club that was established in London in 1894 and used by P.G. Wodehouse as the model for his fictional Drones Club. When making his will, Curwen gave his address as the Bath Club. The piece in The Isis concludes: “He is popular with both sexes, and his position as a member of the Club Committee is a far better tribute to his social qualities than any which his biographer could pay. If he has all the luck he deserves, and all that his countless friends wish him, his life will be a happy one.”

Judging by his appointments in 1911–14, Curwen’s political sympathies were Liberal. On 3 April 1911 he became aide-de-camp (ADC) to Sir John Fuller, KCMG (1864–1915), 1st Baronet, a Liberal politician (1906–11) who had held the seat of Westbury, Wiltshire, from 1906 to 1911, but resigned it on being appointed Governor of Victoria (1911–13), and in 1911 Curwen travelled with him to Australia as part of his staff. On 1 January 1913 he was appointed ADC to the Right Hon. Lord Denman, GCMG, KCVO, PC (1874–1954), the Liberal politician (1905–11) who was the fifth Governor-General of Australia (1911–14). While in Australia, he played cricket for England in 1912. When war was declared he was ADC to Denman’s successor, the Right Hon. Sir R.C. Munro-Ferguson, GCMG (1860–34), the Liberal politician (1884–1914) who had become the sixth Governor-General of Australia (1914–20). Interestingly, the staunchly Conservative President Warren made no mention of these latter distinctions in his obituary and simply recorded that “he had gone into business in the City” – possibly his father’s old firm.


Wilfred John Hutton Curwen, MA
(Photo courtesy of Magdalen College, Oxford)

 

Military and war service

Curwen served in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers from 1900 to 1905, when he resigned, but was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 2nd (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) on 3 April 1911 and promoted Lieutenant on 28 July 1912. On the outbreak of war he returned from Australia to enlist, and on 25 December 1914 he was given the rank of Captain in the 6th (Reserve) Battalion, the London Regiment (Rifles), a training Battalion which never went abroad but formed part of the Dover garrison until the end of 1917.

Curwen was then transferred to the 3rd (Regular) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), which had been stationed in Lucknow, India, when war broke out and arrived back in England in December 1914. It had landed at Le Havre in mid-January 1915 as part of the 86th Brigade, part of the 28th Division – one of the three Divisions formed hastily near Winchester between December 1914 and January 1915 from Regular Battalions that had been called home from all parts of the Empire to fight on the Western Front. The 3rd Battalion served on the Western Front until October 1915, when it was transferred first to Egypt and thence to the Salonika front in north-eastern Greece.

After landing in France, the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers was significantly affected by the cold and damp of a European winter and temporarily lost a quarter of its strength to acute bronchial and laryngeal catarrh. And during February, a large number of men had to be hospitalized because of trench foot. Nevertheless, many managed to return to duty by the beginning of March and once the Battalion had been reinforced by several large drafts, its fighting strength rose to 25 officers and 870 ORs (other ranks) by 10 March, the opening day of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March), the first large-scale British offensive of the war.

Curwen landed in France as a replacement officer on 15 March and joined the 3rd Battalion on an unrecorded date – probably between 16 and 29 March, when it was in the trenches east of Kemmel, about five miles south-south-west of Ypres. Orders had been issued to the troops in the trenches there that they had to display considerable offensive activity in order to occupy and divert the Germans during the assault on Neuve Chapelle, about 12 miles to the south. But as the men had foreseen, the Germans answered shells with shells and badly damaged the 3rd Battalion’s positions. During the night of 9 March, the Battalion HQ was shelled and caught fire, causing the destruction of official papers and correspondence, a machine-gun, rifles, and 80 sets of equipment. Two of the shells that fell on the HQ killed the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Louis Busson du Maurier, DSO (1865–1915), the scion of a famous literary family and author of the long-running play An Englishman’s Home (1909), which had opened at Wyndham’s Theatre in London on 27 January 1909. Du Maurier’s three-act play was a good example of the “invasion literature” that was so popular at the time and whose best-known example is probably The Riddle of the Sands (1903) by Robert Erskine Childers, DSC (1870–1922). Without mentioning Germany by name, du Maurier’s play warned Britain of its unpreparedness for a war with that country and is thought to have stimulated men to join the Territorial Force, which had come into being on 1 April 1908 as part of the Haldane Reforms of Britain’s Armed Forces.

The 3rd Battalion stayed in the Kemmel area until 24 March when it moved a couple of miles northwards to the area of the village of Voormezele, after which it is very hard to locate – at both the levels of Battalion and Brigade. But it is probable that on 1 April 1915 Curwen’s 3rd Battalion had moved a mile or so westwards to the little village of Vijverhoek (on the N375) and that by 20 April 1915, two days before the start of the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April–25 May 1915), it was in trenches on the Gravenstafel Ridge, roughly seven miles north-east of Ypres, and holding a position on the left of the 28th Division. At 17.00 hours on 22 April, the Germans opened 5,730 cylinders of chlorine gas (c.170 tons) on a line from Langemarck to Poelcapelle and the ensuing “poisonous green cloud” (cf. G.U. Robins) created a dangerous four-mile-wide gap on the Canadian flank in the Allied front line that had been held by French Territorials and North African troops, about 6,000 of whom became casualties almost immediately and/or took flight. Partly because the Germans had not anticipated just how successful their gas attack would be, they did not follow through straight away. So at 05.25 hours on 23 April, the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion (the Central Ontario Regiment), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel A.P.D. Birchall, attacked up Mauser Ridge towards Pilckem in an attempt to draw the Germans’ attention away from the gap. The attack failed and Birchall, together with many of his men, was killed in action. At 03.30 hours on 24 April a second gas attack was launched which enabled the Germans to capture the pivotal village of Sint Juliaan and left Curwen’s 3rd Battalion in a dangerously exposed position; and on 25 April the Germans focused yet another attack on the 2nd Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment – who were also part of the 85th Brigade and positioned on the right flank of the 3rd Battalion. Although the Fusilier Battalion helped to repel the assault with their machine-guns, the fighting continued on 26 April, when the Germans almost got round behind the 3rd Battalion’s exposed left flank, and an officer would later describe the Battalion’s position as “almost intolerable”, noting that even after the Germans had been ejected, the Fusiliers were “absolutely plastered with shell and every kind of fire from three sides at once the whole time, with practically no assistance at all from our guns, and nothing could exist or move over the ground in [the] rear, as every yard of it was plastered without ceasing by ever more shells”. The 28th Division continued to hold the line until the evening of 3 May, when it was ordered to pull back – thereby leaving a greater area to the east of Ypres in German hands.

As part of that general withdrawal, the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, which had lost 19 officers and 463 ORs killed, wounded and missing since 22 April, were moved westwards to bivouacs in the woods to the north of the road leading westwards that links Vlamertinghe and Poperinghe, and here it stayed until noon on 8 May 1915. It then, as part of the Battle of Frezenberg (8–13 May 1915), helped to support an attack whose purpose was to regain some trenches that had been lost between Verlorenhoek Road and the railway, and during its stay here between 8 and 12 May, the 3rd Battalion was exposed to continual sniping, which killed 40 ORs and two officers, one of whom was Curwen (9 May 1915); and during those four days in May another 144 officers and men were wounded or went missing. Surprisingly, given that Curwen was the Acting Adjutant of his Battalion, its War Diary makes no mention of his death, which occurred near Potijze, a north-eastern suburb of Ypres, not far from the place where G.P. Cable would be killed in action on the same day.

Curwen was initially buried near where he fell and now has no known grave. He is commemorated on Panels 6 and 8 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial and a memorial service was held for him in St Mary’s Church, Bourdon St, Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London W1, on 3 June 1915. He left £4,783 17s 1d, all of which went to his sister, his only living relative.

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

 

Printed sources:

 [Anon.], ‘Isis Idol no. CCXCVIII: Mr Wilfred John Hutton Curwen (Magdalen College, The Hon. Sec. O.U.A.F.C.)’, The Isis, no. 322 (28 October 1905), pp. 25–6.

[Anon.], ‘Association Rules: Oxford v. Cambridge’, The Times, no. 37,947 (19 February 1906), p. 11.

[Anon.], ‘M.C.C. and Ground v. Leicestershire’, The Times, no. 38,952 (6 May 1909), p. 18.

 [Thomas Herbert Warren], ‘Oxford’s Sacrifice’, The Oxford Magazine, 33, no. 20 (21 May 1915), p. 321.

O’Neill (1922), pp. 64–70, 340.

Clutterbuck, ii (2002), pp. 115–16.

Hancock (2005), pp. 33–41, 122–40, 139, 147.

 

Archival sources:

 MCA: P262/P1/P1 (Photograph Album of A.C. Don).

MCA: PR/2/1914–16 (President’s Notebooks 1900–03, 1904, 1907).

MCA: Ms. 876 (III), vol. 1.

OUA: UR 2/1/47.

WO95/2278/3.

WO95/2279/3.

WO95/2949.

WO95/3945/1.

WO339/15430.