...And An "Unsurpassed Linguist"

Vere Fortrey Currey was born in 1880 and educated at Uppingham. He spoke several European languages being "an unsurpassed linguist" before he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1899 from where he was gazetted into The Suffolk Regiment in 1900.
He had previously served in India, Malta, Aden and at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight with the 1st Battalion before being transferred to the 7th Battalion in October 1914. 
​Killed commanding ‘B’ Company in the first attack upon the south side of the “Hair-pin” he left in his will, a considerably legacy to the then embryonic Old Comrades Association which ensured its stability for many years to come. His fondness for military history and its strategy and tactics, was seen in a comprehensive library, which after his death was donated by his parents to the Regiment and formed the basis of the Regimental Library. Today, books in the museum that are still used for reference bear in the frontispiece, the initials "V.F.C."
Such was the loss felt of his passing that the officers of the Battalion after the war, contributed to a large silver cup named in his honour, which was competed for each year and now resides within the Regimental Museum.

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