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Historic Victoria Cross of Lt.-Col. David Currie to stay in Canada
Blair Crawford
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 $660,000, including a $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 the North Saskatchewan Regiment, the museum's donor-supported National Collection Fund, the federal government and private citizens.
Lesley Barron Kerr, the great granddaughter of Corporal Colin Fraser Barron (right), poses with his medal collection (including the Passchendaele Victoria Cross) after the unveiling. At left is the third Victoria Cross acquisition, originally awarded to Colonel Harcus Strachan during WWI. Julie Oliver / Postmedia
"It is inspiring to see how many Canadians have come forward to help," said Mark O'Neill, president and chief executive of the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of History, who called the Currie VC a "rare and iconic piece of history."
On hand for Tuesday's unveiling were Currie's three grandchildren, David, Sandy and Brenda. They remember their grandfather as a kind family man, who loved to mow the lawn, smoke his pipe and drive his grandkids to and from lessons. He rarely spoke about the war.
"He never talked about it," said Brenda, who came from Powell River, B.C., for the event.
"He said that he went, he did his job and he came home. We knew it was something special, but to us, he was just our grandfather."
Brenda Currie said her grandfather would be proud that his medals were on display and will remain in Canada "as a symbol that all Canadians can learn from and remember."
Her grandfather, she said, considered the medal "every soldier's VC."
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.
Seamus O'Regan, Minister of Veteran's Affairs, gets a closer look at the Currie Victoria Cross with the granddaughter of Lieutenant-Colonel David Vivian Currie, Sandy Currie. Three Victoria Crosses were unveiled at the Canadian War Museum Tuesday (May 1, 2018). Julie Oliver / Postmedia
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.
The three grandchildren of Lt. Col. Currie (from left): Brenda, David and Sandy Currie, look on proudly at his medal collection after the unveiling. Three Victoria Crosses were unveiled at the Canadian War Museum Tuesday (May 1, 2018). Julie Oliver / Postmedia
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. Isabel, now 105, lives in an Ottawa nursing home but was unable to attend Tuesday's ceremony.
Neither the name of the foreign buyer or the Canadian collector who put the medals up for auction has ever been revealed. The museum would not say how much it paid the foreign buyer to keep it in Canada. Export rules say only that Canadians must offer a "fair cash offer" to the foreign buyer.
Brenda Currie said the family is grateful for all the effort it took to keep the Currie VC in Canada.
"It makes me feel so happy," she said. "I'm elated. They're home. They're home."
The Currie Victoria Cross, awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel David Vivian Currie during WWII is one of only 16 awarded to Canadians during WWII and the only one associated with fighting in Normandy. Julie Oliver / Postmedia
bcrawford@postmedia.com
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