David Vivian Currie place of death Ottawa
Military service
In 1939 he joined the militia, before joining the Regular Army the following year. He was commissioned as a lieutenant shortly afterwards, before being promoted to captain in 1941. By 1944 he had reached the rank of major.
Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in command of a battle group of tanks from The South Alberta Regiment, artillery, and infantry of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada at St. Lambert-sur-Dives in France, during the final actions to close the Falaise Gap. This was the only Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian soldier during the Normandy campaign (6 June 1944 through to the end of August 1944), and the only VC ever awarded to a member of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The then 32 year-old Currie was a Major in The South Alberta Regiment, Canadian Army during the Second World War. During the Battle of Falaise, Normandy, between 18–20 August 1944, Currie was in command of a small mixed force of tanks, self-propelled anti-tank guns, and infantry which had been ordered to cut off one of the Germans' main escape routes.
After Currie led the attack on the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives and consolidated a position halfway inside it, his force repulsed repeated enemy attacks over the next day and a half. Despite heavy casualties, Major Currie's small force destroyed seven enemy tanks, twelve 88 mm guns, and 40 vehicles, which led to the deaths of 300 German soldiers, 500 wounded, and 2,100 captured. The remnants of two German armies were denied an escape route.Currie later achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. After his military career, he served as Sergeant at Arms in the House of Commons of Canada from 1960 to 1978. In this role, he also served as a production consultant on the politically-themed CBC Television drama series Quentin Durgens, M.P..He and his wife Isabel remained in Ottawa after his time in the Commons and died there in 1986 and both were buried in Isabel's hometown of Owen Sound, Ontario at Greenwood Cemetery. An armoury in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan has since been named the "Lt. Colonel D.V. Currie Armoury" in his honour and Currie Avenue in the Montgomery Place neighborhood of Saskatoon was named in his honor.
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