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John P. Sargeant is a retired insurance claims adjuster. It is a title he relishes, since it has left him with truckloads of time to pursue his passion for history, chiefly the study of Sir Arthur Currie, the commander of the Canadian forces during the First World War.

Sir Arthur, or old “Guts and Gaiters” as he was known to the troops, was a humble farm boy from Strathroy, Ont. — now home to The General Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Project — of which Mr. Sargeant is the secretary.

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“To anyone who has taken the trouble to research him, Currie is truly a remarkable man,” Mr. Sargeant says.

Sir Arthur was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, and penniless, and so moved to B.C. to become a teacher before joining the militia and bootstrapping his way up from the lowest ranks to become one of the finest Allied commanders on the Western Front. He and his Canadians pushed the Germans off Vimy Ridge, when nobody else could, and they pushed the Germans out of Mons during the end days of the war. And he didn’t march his troops straight into the German machine guns, but had them attack in small groups, fighting to bite and hold ground, under the cover of creeping artillery barrages.