20 May 2016
W.A ‘Bill’ Curran, patient 54th Canadian Infantry Battalion 1915-1919
I am in a village in Victoria, Australia, going through a whole lot of ‘paper’ that I have to cull.
Came across some articles in the Trail Daily times and other newspapers about William Curran (1893-1974) from papers dated 1966 and 1967. ‘Bill’, who was born in Vancouver, was the son of Irish born James A Curran (1851-1899) and his second wife Sarah Murphy.
I visited Trail in 1967 with my father Clarence Graham Quinn, who had been born in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, in 1913. (Dad was the son of John Graham Quinn and Sarah Louisa Rowley and ‘Bill’ Curran had married Doris Rowley, a first cousin of Sarah Louisa. We spent time with the Currans whilst in Trail.)
I was so impressed with Bill who was a humble and inspirational man and was awarded the Freedom of Trail for the work he did for the community.
Not well known is that he spent a lot of time visiting hospitals to see people he had never met, who had operations resulting in them having to wear a colostomy bag. Bill, who had had such an operation, talked to them and assured them they could lead a normal life and he was living proof of the fact.
Curran’s application for the Pioneer Medal
Keira Quinn Lockyer
Family Historian and Author
Happy for you to add this information to the site.