Privates Sydney and George Curl

Sydney and George Curl 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.

Sydney was well known in Paris as a great football player and all round athlete. He was a member of St. James Men’s Society and an adherent of St James Anglican Church. He belonged to the 25^th Dragoons, the local militia. Sydney enlisted and went overseas with the 84^th Battalion and arrived in England on June 29, 1916. He was transferred for the 73^rd Royal Highlanders on august 12 and arrived in Le Havre on August 13, 1916.

Sydney was killed in action on September 3, 1916. It is not clear where in Belgium he was killed. The Highlanders were doing rotating tours or brigade duties, first in Ypres, in August, 1916 and through September, to the south in Kemmel. There were no large-scale battles for Kemmel itself occurred in 1916, though there were localized operations and minor engagements in the broader Ypres Salient area, such as the Actions of the Bluff and the fighting around Hooge.

A letter was sent to his mother from Lieutenant Patch, his platoon commander, that started “September 7, 1916, Somewhere in France.” The letter advised that Sidney had just come on duty as sentry, and that evidently he observed some signs of the enemy for he was heard to fire his rifle several times and that his firing may have attracted enemy snipers or, more likely a chance shot from a machine gun struck him. His death was instantaneous. 

Private Sydney Curl is buried in the La Laiterie Military Cemetery, near Kemmel. His name and dates are recorded on his parents’ headstone in the Paris Cemetery.