TOPIC:

The Second Curry brother - the Churchill Driver - G.D. Curry 5 years 10 months ago #61819

Rory
Topic Author
Offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3437
Thank you received: 2270

George David Curry

Driver, Locomotive Department – Natal Government Railways

- Queens South Africa Medal to Mr. G.D. Curry, Natal Govt. Rlys.

George Curry was born in Durban in the Colony of Natal on 7 April in 1868, the son of an Irish immigrant, John Curry and his wife Louisa, born Adams. Louisa was the daughter of a Colonel John Adams, an early Durban resident whose house, and the one in which George and his many siblings were born, stood in central Durban on the very spot where the old Durban Station was erected.

George was the fourth-born to the couple, following on the heels of John (who now departs our narrative having emigrated to Canada at an early age), Michael Arthur, who also served with the N.G.R. in a number of capacities, and Patrick William, the Station Master at Van Reenen’s Pass during the Boer War. It was George who claimed to have been with Churchill either in the run-up to the Frere armoured train incident or to have been the Driver of the train with which Churchill made his escape from Pretoria over the border to Delagoa Bay but more about that later. All of these brothers worked for the Natal Government Railways before, during and after the Boer War. The next sibling was a daughter, Mary, followed by Thomas who died young after service in World War I, and then Joseph who died at a young age.

All told the Curry family had the makings of a dynasty but it is with George David we confine ourselves in this work. Family legend has it that the Curry’s returned to Tipperary in Ireland towards the latter half of the 19th century to assist in the rescue from financial ruin of a dairy farm belonging to them. No shipping records to substantiate this claim have been found; suffice it to say that they were all back in Natal by the time the Anglo Boer War broke out in October 1899.

Working for the Railways in Victorian times didn’t carry with it the stigma so often associated with it in the modern era and so it was that most of the Curry brothers found themselves employed by the Natal Government Railways in various capacities. George was no exception and was employed initially as a Fireman an thereafter a Fitter and then as a Driver, a very responsible position.

But it is a Fireman that we first encounter him in what became known as the Glencoe Train Disaster – an event that made headlines in January 1896 then and, based purely on the high number of fatalities – forty two dead in number, would have made headlines now as well. The Glasgow Herald carried the following article:-

“The public attention has been absorbed this week by the terrible disaster which befell a train crowded with refugees from the Rand on their way to Durban.

A passenger gives the following description of the accident in the Johannesburg Times:-

At the time the disaster occurred I was looking out to see the train coming round the curve. It consisted of four Natal Government Railway carriages and six Netherlands carriages and Guard’s Van. The Natal carriages turned the curve safely, but the first of the Netherlands carriages rushed straight on, followed by the others thus causing the disaster.

When I got out the sight presenting itself was awful. Here and there lay mangled almost unrecognisable bodies, some gasping and moaning. A young lady I saw was still breathing, but had bitten her own tongue off, and her vision was obscured by a quantity of blood on her face. Both her legs appeared broken. We could do nothing for her, and she died in a few minutes.

There were only about six uninjured men left, and we were working nearly half an hour before any assistance arrived. At the time of the accident we were travelling about 25 miles an hour, and, in my opinion, the disaster was caused through the Netherland’s Company’s carriages being unadapted to the curves and being top heavy. They are also flimsily constructed, and so light that they can be rocked by one man.

The Natal Witness describes the scene on arrival of the first train at Pietermaritzburg with the wounded: - The excitement and anxiety were intense, and the military and the police were forced to keep back the immense crowd. Many affecting and some remarkable incidents are related. In one compartment a party of four were playing cards, a sum of £40 being in the pool. Every person in the whole carriage was killed except for these four, who were more or less injured.

Several statements have been made that the dead were robbed. Some of the wounded indistinctly remember being handled, and when they came to themselves were minus money and valuables. It was declared that several of the passengers who left Johannesburg with next to nothing, were afterwards in possession of hundreds of pounds, besides valuables.”

The Natal Witness of 8 January 1896 carried an extensive article on the matter covering the official enquiry into the incident. Relevant passages are quoted from below in respect of the testimony given by Mr Hunter, The N.G.R. General Manager and it is here we find mention of our man Curry and, his brother Patrick who was also an employee on the train:-

“Mr Hunter said it was very difficult to arrive at any proper solution to the cause of the accident. The position in which the unfortunate accident took place was very exceptional, and occurring as the accident did just at that particular point, the carriages came into violent collision with large stone boulders in a side cutting on the line there. The engine and the first four carriages of the train being Natal stock passed over safely, and that the carriage that caused the catastrophe was the first of the Netherlands carriages following immediately behind the fourth Natal carriage.”

Under a sub-heading “The Fireman” – George Curry was quoted as saying:-

“George Curry said that on rounding the curve he noticed that the train jolted as was usual on a curve. When they had just passed it the engine broke loose from the train. They stopped the engine as soon as possible, and on looking back he saw that the van was on its back down the bank, and that some of the carriages were off the line. At the time of the accident they were travelling at from 24 to 25 miles an hour. Sometimes trains ran at 20 miles an hour around this curve. And sometimes at a lower rate of speed. He had no idea what caused the train to be derailed.”

Under the sub-heading “The Guard” – Curry’s brother Patrick (A.W. Curry sic) was quoted as saying:-

“A.W. Curry said he took over the train at No. 1 Reversing Station. On noticing the great length of the train he asked the driver whether the brakes were alright. The driver assured him that they were. The first thing he observed at the curb where the accident occurred was that the Netherlands carriages did not seem to take the curve.

The next thing he saw was that the carriages had turned over, and his van followed on toppling over on the opposite side to that on which the other carriages fell. There appeared to be no unusual oscillation in the Netherlands carriages before the accident. They were travelling from 20 to 25 miles an hour. He did not observe any slackening of speed around the curve. The Netherlands carriages always oscillated going round curves, whilst the Natal carriages took the curves smoothly. He felt safe in stating that if the train had been entirely composed of Natal carriages the accident would not have happened. The curve was the sharpest one on the line from No. 1 Reversing Station.”

The train incident fading into memory, George Curry took a wife on 16 February 1898, marrying 20 year old Florence Ellen Hawkswood from Durban at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in that city. Aged 26 he was then an Engine Driver with the N.G.R. Father W. Murray officiated. Soon after this he moved with his bride to Ladysmith, little knowing that in a short space of time this sleepy little town was to be a hotbed of activity. The Burgess Roll for 1902 showed that two children were born to the couple up to that time – one on 19 November 1900 and the second on 16 November 1901.

But prior to that war broke out between the two Boer Republics to the north and west of Natal and the British Empire and it now fell to the N.G.R. to transport both men, stores and equipment across the length and breadth of Natal – wherever the line would take them in order to assist the Imperial troops in the war effort. Curry, as we have seen, was a Driver with the N.G.R. working out of Ladysmith. The medal roll from which his Queens medal was issued makes specific reference to him “Working special trains at the front” – a task which would have taken him into the very vanguard of danger.

But it is to the newspapers that we must now turn to determine what exactly Curry, often in his own words, ‘got up to”. George Curry, it seems, proved to be rather photogenic and had a special genius for being in the limelight. According to his family, every year without fail, the Natal Mercury would carry and article featuring Curry standing under the old Durban Station Clock, regaling readers with the story of his role in the Boer War. Let’s leave it to a sample of these cuttings to tell the tale – you, the reader, can determine fact from fiction:-

In 1953 the Mercury carried an article entitled “Railway Veterans” wherein it is stated that:

“George Curry used to drive trains through Pine Street (central Durban) in the days of the N.G.R. That was way back in the 1870’s (sic). But he still talks affectionately of the “old Frinton six-wheeler,” then the latest thing in engines.

As a fireman George was in the Glencoe disaster of “96”. His brother was the guard who, after being thrown down a bank in his van, smashed his way out and ran to save another train from crashing into the wreckage.

George, now 79, remembers retiring in 1931. He wants to know if other N.G.R. are still alive.”

In the same year, 1953, but in the Durban-based Sunday Tribune the following article was carried under the heading “Once Gave Churchill A Lift.:-

Mr G.D Currie (sic), now 81 and spending long hours of leisure playing bowls, once gave Mr Winston Churchill a ride on the footplate of his engine to a troop train derailed and wrecked by the Boers during the Boer War.

Mr Currie who was born in Durban, told me, “One day up near the front line I was in my engine when a young man, who introduced himself as Churchill, asked me to run him up to a place between Frere and Chievely , Northern Natal, where the Boers had wrecked a train by uncoupling the rails. He had heard there were British troops on it and was anxious to get an eye-witness account for his newspaper.

I told him I could not go without permission, so he immediately wrote out a letter taking responsibility for moving the engine. On the way he chatted continually and I found him very interesting.

“Whether he got his story I do not know because in the end I was only able to take him half way. But he was grateful for the ride”.
On 7 April 1959 under the heading “Active Bowler Turns 87” the Mercury reported that:-

“Still an active bowler” is Mr George D. Curry, of Allenby Gardens, Umbilo. Mr Curry who was born in Durban and served in the Railways for 40 years celebrated his 87th birthday today.

Mr Curry plays regularly at the Berea Bowling Club and he offered to prove his “youthfulness” by wrestling with a “Natal Mercury” reporter. He remembers driving trains along the line which crossed West Street and also various campaigns in the South African War, when Mr Curry fought under General Buller.

When asked if he had any ambitions left in life, Mr Curry smiled and admitted he would like to live until the age of 100. But in the meantime he is kept occupied in trying to control his three great –grandchildren.”

The 1962 version of his life carried the following under the caption “He Will Be 90 On Saturday”:-

“Mr George Curry who celebrates his 90th birthday on Saturday, recalled yesterday how Durban was just a swampy and bushy area with a few dirt roads when he was a boy.

George Curry joined the Railways at the age of 18 as a fireman and later became an engine driver. He said yesterday that the small engines puffed between the present Pine Street and West Street carrying passengers. Later Mr Curry was transferred to Ladysmith.

He married Miss Nellie Hawkswood and he spent the most of his married life in Ladysmith. He took part in the South African War and was present when the Siege of Ladysmith was lifted. His family had been evacuated to Durban.

During the South African War he piloted the train carrying Sir Winston Churchill through enemy territory. He returned to Ladysmith after the war. His wife died in 1938 and he came to Durban to live with his daughter, Mrs D. Johnson.

He was a keen sportsman and played football for the railways. He also rode the winner in a horse race, which later became known as the July Handicap, but what was then known as the “Big Race”. The horse was St. Patrick.”

In 1964 the newspaper highlighted how a 92 year old Mr Curry “remembers driving the train that carried Sir Winston Churchill from Estcourt during the South African War.”

Two years later, in 1966, an article under the heading “Crashed 70 Years Ago” appeared:-

“Today is the 70th anniversary of the Glencoe rail disaster in which 42 people were killed and 56 injured, and it has special significance for a Durban man – the only remaining survivor.

He is 94 year old Mr George Curry, who was fireman on the train, and who today claims to be the oldest living Durban-born resident of the city. It was probably only the action of Mr Curry’s brother Mr Pat Curry, the mail guard on the train that prevented an even greater disaster.

Mr George Curry. Now a little deaf but still able to read newspapers without spectacles, told me at his home at 12 Allenby Gardens, Durban, how the disaster occurred.

The train was carrying several hundred Johannesburg evacuees down to Durban. When it arrived at Newcastle it was “broken up” and two separate trains made because the single load was too much for one engine to pull through the hilly “Dannhauser bank”

Several miles from Glencoe the train, made up of four-wheeler fixed-axle coaches which were said to be unsuitable for the Natal track, overturned on a bend. About four coaches and the guardsvan left the rails.

Mr Curry said his brother, in the guardsvan, was saved only by the soft mailbags which protected him from injury as the van rolled down a steep bank.

Mr Pat Curry then got out of the van, climbed the bank and was only just in time to signal to the other ”half” of the train which was travelling five minutes behind.

Mr George Curry joined the Railways in 1889 and retired in 1933 after 44 years’ service. He has been on pension for 32 years. His brother died about 10 years ago.”

In 1968, a photo appeared in the Mercury with Curry posing with Miss Isolde Haag below the old clock at the Durban Railway Station on, “the exact spot where he was born 96 years ago”. The accompanying article headed “DURBAN MAN (96) “LIVED IN HISTORY” read as follows:-

The man believed to be the oldest living person in Durban, Mr George Curry of 12 Allenby Gardens, Umbilo, will celebrate his 96th birthday at his home tomorrow night.

To mark the occasion, friends and relatives from all over the country will attend the party, making it into a big family reunion. Mr Curry was born at the exact spot where the old clock in the foyer of the Durban Railway Station now stands.

His grandfather, Mr John Adams, owned this piece of land and had his house built there. A few years after Mr Curry’s birth the house was sold and became part of the railway station. The room in which he was born was then made the pay-office. It was here Mr Curry received his first pay-packet after joining the railways as a stoker at the age of 18.

During the war he drove the armoured train carrying Sir Winston Churchill through enemy territory, Sir Winston was captured by the Boers on this trip. Mr Curry became friends with President Paul Kruger and of the old President he still says; “He was a great man.”

As the years passed by George Curry’s account of his role in the war, specifically relating to Churchill, became, understandable perhaps, more garbled and, some might say, fanciful.

His final newspaper appearance came in 1970 and carried, not an interview with him, but rather the news of his death. His Death Notice confirmed that he had passed away on 5 July 1970 at Entabeni Hospital in Durban. A widower he was survived by his many children, Olive Kathleen Tyass, Winifred Brown, Daisy Myrtle Johnson, Agnes Lund and George John Curry.

Sadly he had missed his dream to live until 100 – falling short by not many years. A fascinating man.