Уильям Мэтью Карри, герой Австралии и кавалер Викторианского креста.

Australian Victoria Cross recipient

William Matthew Currey, VC (19 September 1895 – 30 April 1948) was a politician and an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He received the award for his actions during the Battle of Mont Saint Quentin in September 1918, while serving with Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front during the First World War. After the war, Currey worked as a labourer and railway worker before entering the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor Party representative for the seat of Kogarah, which he held between 1941 and his death in 1948.

Born in Wallsend, New South Wales, on 19 September 1895, Currey was the son of a miner, William Robert Currey and Mary Ellen Lang. After attending Dudley and Plattsburg public schools, he was employed as a wireworker in Leichhardt. In October 1916, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, volunteering for service overseas during the First World War, having attempted unsuccessfully several times before, being rejected as under aged. After being accepted, Currey was eventually sent to the Western Front in Europe, where he initially served the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery, before being posted in July 1917 to the 53rd Battalion – an infantry battalion that had been recruited primarily from New South Wales – as a reinforcement. In late 1917, Currey fought with the battalion during the Battle of Polygon Wood.

In September 1918, during the final Allied offensive of the war – the Hundred Days Offensive – Currey was one of eight Australians awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions during the Battle of Mont Saint Quentin. On 1 September 1918 in the attack on Péronne, France, Currey, as a 22 year old private in the 53rd Battalion, rushed forward under heavy machine gun fire and captured single handed a 77 mm field gun which had been holding up the advance, killing all the crew. Later, when the advance was checked by an enemy strong point he crept round the flank and engaged the post with a Lewis gun, then rushed it, causing many casualties. Subsequently he volunteered to carry orders for withdrawal to an isolated company, bringing back valuable information, doing so under heavy fire and despite being gassed. The citation published in the London Gazette of 14 December 1918 concluded that his behaviour was a "striking example of coolness, determination and utter disregard of danger and his gallant work contributed largely to the success of the operation." The Australian official war historian, Charles Bean, described the final act of Currey's heroism thusly: "At 3 am when efforts to reach (a Lt Waite in an advanced position) having failed Private Currey volunteered to make his third attempt and going out far into the disputed front he stood up and called with all his lung power. "Waitsy! Get in." The Germans turned on him every weapon they had; he was gassed and his respirator was shot through. But Waite had heard him and returned." In 1941, he ceased working for the Railways, and successfully stood for election as the Labor Party member for Kogarah in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

Currey's Victoria Cross is displayed at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia. Following a public appeal in 1956 a plaque was erected in memory of Currey in the Speakers Square within the New South Wales Parliament complex. During renovations in the 1970s the plaque was put into storage for safekeeping and was only rediscovered and restored to its place in 2008. In 1976, the Jeffries and Currey Memorial Library was opened by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Roden Cutler, at Dudley Public School to honour two of the school's pupils who were decorated with the Victoria Cross during the First World War: Clarence Jeffries and William Currey. The pair are also commemorated by the Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V. C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V. C.) Memorial Wall located in the grounds of Sandgate General Cemetery, Newcastle, which was unveiled in an official ceremony on 16 April 2000.