Date of birth: 14/06/1896

Place of birth: Levuka, Lomaiviti, Fiji

Profession: Engine Driver - Shedman

Country: New Zealand

Force: New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Rank: Private

Service number: 19459

Enlistment date: 18/09/1916

Enlistment place: Narrow Neck, Auckland, New Zealand

Units:  —  New Zealand Maori (Pioneer) Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 08/10/1917

Place of death: Lijssenthoek, Remy Siding Casualty Clearing Stations, Belgium

Cause of death: Died of wounds (D.O.W.)

Age: 21

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Private Joseph Curtis was part of the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion under direct command of divisional headquarters. The New Zealand Division took part in the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October 1917. After terrain had been won, the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion was tasked with consolidating these gains by constructing navigable roads to the new front and repairing damaged roads. This task was difficult because the rain turned the landscape into a quagmire in the first days after the battle. The roads were also targets for German artillery fire, as destroying these could cripple the supply lines. Private Joseph Curtis was wounded on 7 October 1917. He was most likely wounded while working on the roads near Spree Farm and Kansas Cross. He was transported to the Casualty Clearing Station at Lijssenthoek (Remy Siding), where he succumbed to his wounds and was buried on the 8th of October 1917.

James Cowan, The Maoris in the Great War : a history of the New Zealand native contingent and pioneer battalion : Gallipoli 1915, France and Flanders 1916-1918, (Uckfield, Naval and Military Press, 1926,) 124-125. Sources used

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery http://www.lijssenthoek.be/nl/adres/12606/-joseph-curtis.html Sources used

McCarthy C., The Third Ypres Passchendaele : The Day-by-Day account, (London, Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018), 113-117. Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/433114

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=bcc3beff-3ca3-4cd2-bbb2-fba945aab4fe

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/7173281

The NZEF Project (UNSW Canberra) https://nzef.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=60153

Online Cenotaph (Auckland Museum) https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C3591