Canada
Arthur Currie
1875–1933 Commander, Canadian Corps, from June 1917
Born on an Ontario farm, Currie left high school, taught in British Columbia, sold insurance and joined the militia as a gunner in 1897. He commanded a brigade at Second Ypres in 1915, then the 1st Canadian Division as a major-general, and in June 1917 became the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. Currie insisted on thorough planning to spare his men, at Hill 70, Passchendaele and in the Hundred Days of 1918. The corps still suffered about 46,000 casualties in that campaign, and the capture of Mons on the last day of the war brought charges that he had wasted lives. He won a libel suit in 1928, but only $500 in damages. Principal of McGill University from 1920, he died in 1933.