Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. group of three awarded to Sergeant J. Curran, Highland Light Infantry
Military Medal, G.V.R. (7545 Sjt. J. Curran. 18/High: L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (7545 Sjt. J. Curran. High. L.I.) mounted for wear, good very fine

Four: Flight Sergeant J. Curran, 623 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Stirling Wireless Operator killed in action during a night raid to Berlin, 23/24 August 1943
1939-45 Star, 1 clasp, Bomber Command, this loose; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, mounted for wear, nearly extremely fine

Three: Corporal S. G. Curran, Royal Air Force
General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (Cpl. S G Curran (2043291) RAF); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted for wear in this order, later issues, generally very fine or better (10) £700-900

M.M. London Gazette 17 June 1919.

The letter of congratulation from the Caledonian Railway gives the following detail:

‘I have been instructed by the Board of Directors to offer you their congratulations on having been awarded the Military Medal for building [a] pontoon bridge over River Lys at village of Marke during an advance and to express their gratification at learning that the services of a member of the Caledonian Staff have been judge worthy of such a mark of appreciation by His Majesty.’

John Curran was a native of Edinburgh and was born in 1892. He enlisted in the Highland Light Infantry in November 1910, and served during the Great War with the 18th (4th Glasgow) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) on the Western Front. Having advanced to Sergeant, Curran transferred to the Army Reserve 29 March 1919.

John Curran was the son of the above, and served as a Flight Sergeant, Wireless Operator with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second War. He served operationally with the short-lived 623 Squadron (Stirlings), Downham Market, and was killed in action, 23/24 August 1943, when piloted by Squadron Leader W. H. B. Hiles, D.S.O., D.F.C. for an operation to Berlin, ‘T/o 2052 Downham Market. Shot down by a nightfighter and crashed 5 km S of Zossen. All commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. They were the first to be posted missing from Squadron since its formation from part of 218 Squadron. It was very much a scratch crew in that S/L Hiles was a Staff Officer at 3 Group headquarters.’ (Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War refers)

Miss S. G. Curran was the sister of the above and served as a Corporal in the Royal Air Force. In later life she resided at ‘15 Mainsfield Avenue, More Battle, Roxburgshire, TD5 8QW’ (sold with a letter to recipient from the Ministry of Defence concerning her late claim for the medals listed, dated 13 December 1989, and a photograph of recipient in uniform).

Sold with the following documentation relating to Sergeant J. Curran: Certificate of Transfer to Reserve on Demobilisation; letter of congratulation to the recipient from the Secretary’s Office, Caledonian Railway on the occasion of the award of his M.M., dated 30 April 1919; portrait photograph of recipient in uniform, and another with him as part of a group photograph - the later annotated on reverse ‘Swan Farm Ypres’.

Sold with the following documentation relating to Flight Sergeant J. Curran: named Air Council enclosure slip; later enclosure slip for Bomber Command clasp and portrait photograph of recipient in uniform.