Edward Stanley Curwen

Key Information

Name: Edward Stanley Curwen
DoB: Jan. I, 1879 (according to the Carlisle Grammar School Memorial Register) or Jan 21 1879 (according to information from Queen’s).
Regt: Lance Corporal, 12/85, “A” Company, 12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.
DoD: July 1 , 1916. 
Academic Career: CGS 1891-8,  Queen’s Coll., Oxford, 1898; Thomas Exhib.; 3rd Class, Clas. Mod., 1900; B.A. (3rd Class English Lit.), 1902; M.A., 1910. 
Other:Asst. Master, Rotherham’ Gr. School.
Biographical Information:

  • Edward Stanley Curwen

    Edward Stanley Curwen

  • Theipval Stone

    Theipval Stone

  • Family Background:

    Son of the Rev. Edward Hassell Curwen, D.C.L. Rector of Plumbland and Eleanor Maria Louise Curwen (nee Hill) of Kirkandrews, Carlisle. They had two children:

    •             Frances Edith Mackenzie Curwen (b. 1874)

    •             Edward Stanley Curwen (b. 1879)

    and lived at Plumbland Rectory.

  • Academic Record:

    Edward was educated at Carlisle Grammar School from 1891 to 1898 under Crosthwaite & Hendy. He was in the school’s Rugby, football and cricket teams in 1897. He won the swimming cup in 1896 and 1897.

    According to Liber Vitae Reginensium  (Queen’s Oxford) Edward was “healthy and strong, used to play cricket & fives, can sing, interest in old books, lives 4BQ top right front under Allen”. While there, he was a member of the Oxford University Rifle Volunteer Corps.

    Edward matriculated with a Thomas Exhibition in 1898, took pass moderations and then read for the final school of English literature, in which he obtained a third class honours.

    Edward graduated as a BA in 1902 and MA in 1910. He became a Classics master at Rotherham grammar school. In the 1911 Census he was single and boarding at Moorgate Grove, Rotherham.

  • War Service:

    Edward enlisted in Sheffield in 1914 as a private in the York and Lancaster Regt. He was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916 at Serre.  He was 37.

    In the photograph we have of him with three other soldiers, Alexander Robertson, also an Oxford graduate, was also killed on 1st July 1916; as was William Wyatt Bagshawe. All three are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

  • Battalion:

    York and Lancaster

  • Other:

    Probate was granted in Carlisle on July 31 1917 to his father and Richard Irvine Steele, Solicitor, effects of £3481 11s 6d 

  • Sources:

    a)            Carlisle School Memorial Register 1264-1924 b)            Census: 1911: RG14/28050 1901: RG13/4886 1891: Rg12/4308 1881: Rg11/5179 c)            Liber Vitae Reginensium  (Queen’s University of Oxford) d)           Probate e)           Pam & Ken Linge (Thiepval Database Project) f)            Nicola Hilton, Archivist, Oxford University