Letters From the Front

Flight Lieut. Frank Warren Curtis, RFC, 9th Squadron

2nd Lt. Frank Warren Curtis - last letter to parents

Toronto Evening Telegram

A photo and newspaper article about the death of Flight Lieutenant Frank Warren Curtis appeared in the Toronto Evening Telegram on September 13th, 1917. The newspaper article was combined with a letter from Curtis. The following includes the transcription of the newspaper article as it appeared:

REMEMBERED HIS PARENTS

ERE HE CLIMBED TO HIS DEATH.

Brave Harbord Collegiate Boy Leaves Letter to Father and Mother Before Engaging the Enemy.

That a son should be killed is sad news to any father and mother, but when that sons pens a letter to his beloved parents embarking on his dangerous mission, and in that letter breathes not only filial love, but the warmest spirit of self-sacrifice for his country, it most in some measure minimize the sorrow and create a feeling of pride in the parental home that the loving son had died nobly doing his duty.

Mr. and Mrs. John Curtis, of 1018 Bathurst street, whose son, Flight Lieut. Frank Warren Curtis, of the Royal Flying Corps, was killed in action on the 13th of August last, received a letter which he had left on his desk just previous to ascending to engage the enemy. It read as follows:--

Dated: August 13, 1917

My dear Father and Mother:

I am going up on a dangerous job now, and if I should fall for the sake of my country, don't grieve too much, but remember that your son Frank loves his people, and thinks more of his father and mother than anyone else in the world. Never once have you scolded me but that now I realize I deserved it, as it was for my own good. If I should be killed, remember we all meet again in the future.

With love and blessings for you both and Urquhart.

Forever your son,

Frank W. Curtis.

INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH.

The young lieutenant (he was only twenty-one years of age) was ordered on a dangerous mission in support of the British artillery, and the chances were that he would not survive the action, and as fate decreed, he failed to survive, being shot through the head by a German aviator who attacked him.

The late lieutenant left for overseas last November and received his training in England. He was a Harbord Collegiate Institute¹ boy and was born in Toronto, and before enlisting attended the Technical School.

¹Flight Lieut. F. W. Curtis is remembered on the Harbord Collegiate War Memorial in Toronto. This is an outdoor memorial which has been restored in recent years.

Transcribed by: M. I. Pirie