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Roll of Irish Brigade in Zossen confirms service no. On MI5 files with this service number. A painter and decorator before he enlisted according to Casements notes. Keogh has him from Dublin, and one of the first to join the Irish Brigade. He was also noted as "useful in the boxing ring" by Keogh. Zerhusen also remaks that Curry was a good boxer. In Limburg POW Camp, he was suspected as having joined Casements Brigade, but the British authorities did not have not sufficient proof. But later his medals were forfeited. Nicknamed "Ragtime"
1896 Aug 20. Egypt list points to this being his birth in Dublin, and Roll confirms. Roll says born Woolich, but nothing in British records to confirm that.
1901 This is probably him. Son of a house painter. living with the family at Bride Street, Wood Quay, Dublin. John Curry had his job being a painter recorded by Casement.
1911. There are only 2 John Curry of the right age in Dublin 1911 census, and neither is a painter. Of the two listed, the more likely in the man at Cross Kevin St, Wood Quay, Dublin recorded as a general labourer aged 17. Keogh puts him at 19 in 1915, so should be 15 in 1911 if Keogh is correct. He is the same man as in 1901 with a brother Christopher, his age has been put down slightly incorrectly.
1912. His service number implies an enlistment of around Sept 1912. He would only have been 16.
1914 Aug 23. Landed in France with Royal Dublin Fusiliers, taken prisoner soon afterwards and followed the rest of the Irish Brigade through Limburg, Zossen and Danzig
He kept a low profile and is not mentioned in any wartime reports from the camps.
1914 Keogh states that Curry had a "little girl cousin killed" at Bachelors Walk. This attribution has to be wrong as the deaths are recorded of 3 civilians at Bachelors Walk on 26 July 1914 By this stage a crowd had gathered, and on seeing the soldiers frustrated they began to heckle and jeer. When the Borderers reached Bachelors Walk some of the back ranks of the detachment turned and without being ordered began attacking the crowd. Three people were killed instantly, Mrs. Duffy, James Brennan and Patrick Quinn, and thirty-two were injured. One man died later of bayonet wounds. In fact the list of casualties in Irish Times shows no young girls killed or injured. There was one woman killed, Mrs Duffy above described as aged in a report, and one woman injured, a Mrs Scully wounded by a bayonet.
The men at left John Curry, Keogh centre, right James Kennedy
1915 Sep 18 and 27. The roll book indicates that he had 3 days punishment on these two occasions.
1915 Oct. He gives his address as 29 Meath St, Dublin
1916 Jan Volunteered for service in Egypt
Active in IRA 1920 - 1921
1918 Nov . O'Toole when he was debriefed gives a list of men whom he says left Danzig camp soon after the armistice, insisting on going to a POW camp in order to be transported home. He appears on O'Toole's list
1935 Aug 5. Attends Casement memorial service in Dublin
Alive 1960