Allan Currie

Allan Currie was a member of the five-man Great Britain cross-country skiing squad at the 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics. Unlike team-mates Ernest Appleyard, Guy Clarkson, Chris Mackintosh, and Alex Keiller, however, Currie never started in either of the events he was entered for.

Currie was the son of a Glasgow earthenware manufacture, and went on to enjoy a successful Army career, before working for the Glasgow company of J. & P. Coats. He was educated at Janefield school in Bearsden before going to the Glasgow Academy, where Currie was in the school rugby first XV. He joined the Glasgow Highlanders in 1912 and rose to the rank of major in the 18th Highland Light Infantry. During World War I, he saw service in France and was injured twice, in 1915 and 1918. Currie was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in 1917 for his bravery in rescuing an injured colleague at Ypres. Injured just 50 yards from enemy lines, Currie dragged him to safety despite being under heavy machine-gun fire.

After military service, Currie joined Coats of Paisley who were one of the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturers at the time. His job took him to the Baltic States, where he became an excellent cartographer and acquired a great knowledge of the Finnish landscape. He lived and worked in Norway in between the two World Wars, and it was during his time there that he improved his skiing skills. Currie and his wife later lived in Sweden, where their son Gilbert was born in 1935. He was named after Currie’s brother Gilbert, who was killed in action in 1916.

Currie was recalled from the Army Reserve List at the start of World War II and after fighting in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign was attached to Military Affairs at the Ministry of Information in London, and it was there in 1944 that he lost his life when killed by enemy action.