Dumfries Street
Private George Curl
George Curl and his brother Sydney were the sons of Thomas Curl and Amelia Gilliam. The family lived in Langley Park, a coal mining town in Durham County. Thomas emigrated to Paris in June, 1913 where he worked as a bricklayer. Amelia, George and two sisters, Emma and Maud, followed Thomas in October of that year, sailing aboard the SS Corsican. Sydney had married Florence March in 1912, but he came to Canada without his wife in 1915 to join his family, who lived on Amelia Street in Paris.
George Alfred Curl was working as a laborer when he enlisted in November, 1915 in Niagara Falls. He had already been serving in the Active Militia, in the 44th Regiment, and had also served for three months in the 19th Regiment. He was pronounced fit and went overseas. He remained with the 58th Battalion from September 7, 1916, to February 18, 1917.
A medical report from No. 11 Canadian General Hospital dated February 20, 2018, provides a history of George’s chronic bronchitis. He had immigrated to Canada because of bronchitis and asthma and became quite well while living there. However, the symptoms returned as soon as he got to England and bronchitis got very bad in France. He had arrived from Canada in July, 1916 and was sent to France on September 9, 1916. He remained with the 58th Battalion from September, 1916, to February, 1917. He was before a medical board on August 18, 1917, at St. Martins Plains. He had been in France for six months and was invalided on February 27, 1917, with bronchitis. He was pronounced fit for restricted duty, Category B-2. But on April, 2018, he was transferred to Kirkdale Hospital, Liverpool, where he was examined on June 1, 1918. He was invalided to Canada on June 8 and received his discharge statement in Canada in October, 1918 where he was living in London with his sister.
George married Gwendoline Maud Howard in Paris on July 19, 1919. In 1921 he and Gwendoline Maude were visiting her parents at Green Farm, Benhall, Suffolk, and his occupation was as an electrician at Penmans Mills, Paris. They were living at the time on Catherine Street. In 1923, the family had moved to Niagara Falls, New York, where George worked as a mill worker, a railway laborer and a watchman in a barrel factory. By the Canadian Census of 1931, they had returned to Paris where they lived on Dumfries Street. On June 25, 1932, the family arrived by ship in England to live there permanently. Their destination was Middleton, Suffolk. Private George Alfred Curl died on February 8, 1966, in Scamundham, Suffolk, England.
[[curl-sydney-ameilia-st]]