In Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 20318 Private John Curry serving with D Company 5th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment who died 10/08/1918.
The son of Thomas and Mary Curry, of “Greenoak,” Eastrington, Brough, Yorks and the husband of Selma Curry, of 51, Council Street, West Stanley, Co. Durham.
Ian Murray has submitted the following:-
John Curry was born in 1892 in Cottingham, near Hull in East Yorkshire to parents Thomas and Mary Curry. In 1891 his father was a Market Gardener but in the 1901 census he is recorded as being a Farmer Foreman and the family lived at Thicket Lodge, Wheldrake, East Yorkshire.
In 1911, John, by now aged 19, was a Waggoner on Farm at South Cliff Farm, Hotham, still in the same part of Yorkshire.
John enlisted in August 1917 and served in The Yorkshire Regiment with service number 46683. Prior to his enlistment he had been employed by the North Eastern Railway as a Rulleyman at Annfield Plain where presumably he met his future wife, Selina. Selina King was born in 1900 in Annfield Plain, where her family lived in Clavering Place. By 1911, Selina and her siblings were living with their mother and stepfather at 52, Council Street, West Stanley, as three years earlier their mother had remarried. Council Street no longer exists but stood where Home Bargains now stands.
John and Selina were married in October 1917, the marriage being registered in Lanchester.
John was Killed In Action on 10th August 1918 while serving in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and is buried in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe; a village between Bethune and Lens in France. The Grave Plot Reference is III E 32. His effects were returned to his widow, Selina who was by now living at 51, Council Street, West Stanley. At this time John’s parents were living at Greenoak, Eastrington, Brough, East Yorkshire, in the same area where John was born and grew up.
John Curry is remembered at Stanley on S135.04 and on the North Eastern Railway War Memorial (York).
