Official Entry of Canadian Corps Army Commander into Mons, Belgium, 15 November 1918

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Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie was made commander of the Canadian Corps when he was Knighted in June 1917.  A detailed planner, he refused to send his troops into battle without thorough preparations.  The Canadian Corps never lost a battle under Currie's command, even though he lacked charisma and was never popular with his soldiers.  After the war, he became principal of McGill University in Montreal. 

Currie was not a charismatic leader and had no easy way with his soldiers. But his understanding of the importance of pre-battle preparation and the limited “set-piece” attack to “bite and hold” enemy positions derived from sincere concern over the needless sacrifice of lives in futile frontal assaults.  He studied carefully the lessons of recent fighting and sought to implement them in the forces under his command.

Currie’s sterling wartime reputation did not survive intact into the post-war period.  His opposition to the appointment of politically favoured officers had created enemies in Ottawa.  These included Sir Sam Hughes whose son, Garnet, a close pre-war friend, Currie had passed over for a senior appointment in France.  When the war ended, the elder Hughes accused Currie of having sacrificed Canadian lives in fruitless battles on the eve of the Armistice.  It was not true, but the accusation dogged Currie for many years, even after he became principal of McGill University in the early 1920s.  The general eventually fought back, winning a high-profile court case against libel in 1928, but the effort damaged his health and he died in 1933 at age 57.  Tens of thousands attended his funeral, the largest for any Canadian to that point in the country’s history.