Other Information:Walter was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and at Queen’s University, Belfast - becoming a member of the Officer’s Training Corps at the university, he joined the Special Reserve of Officers in the R.A.M.C. He was called to the colours on 5th August 1914 and was posted to serve on the medical staff of the 15th Field Ambulance, entering the war with them on 20th August. Walter took four days leave in the UK at Christmas then shortly after he returned to the front lines he was attached to the 1st Bn. Norfolk Regiment as their medical officer. In a letter to his father he wrote: “Above all things don’t worry. If you keep bright and smiling it will do mother a lot of good. Don’t be downhearted. My risks are very small compared with those of the fighting men, but I want to prepare you for this - I may soon be sent as medical officer to a regiment. This may mean more exposure, but the danger is not much increased. One, however, should look at these things not through narrow personal spectacles, but take a broader, patriotic view. You cannot make omelets without breaking eggs. You cannot have the prosperity and comfort that Britain now enjoys, and for which she has in the past shed blood, without losing, without losing lives. And so I come to my point - that instead of worrying about the whole skin of one’s relatives at the front people at home should rather think of the ultimate result of this war, and be prepared, if necessary, to lose their friends.” Walter was killed whilst tending to wounded when the battalion came under heavy shell fire. He was the eldest son of Joseph and Jessie Graham McCurry of Belfast Bank House, Shankhill Rd., Belfast.
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