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Herbert Chapman Cross
born Ely,
Cambridgeshire, 21st November 1890
died Gaza, Palestine, 18th June 1917
on the Page family tree
part of the Cross and Carter family stories
married to
sister of Phyllis Page
son of
Thomas Cross
and Sarah Carter
Herbert Chapman Cross
(1890-1917). My Father's Mother's Brother.
My Great-Great-Uncle.
The Cross family came
from the same part of Ely as the Pages. Herbert was the
younger brother of my great-grandmother Sophia Page née
Cross. He was born in Potters Lane on the west side of
Back Hill. The Crosses had lived in Potters Lane
throughout the 19th Century, and would continue to do so
well into the 20th Century.
1890: Herbert was born on the 21st November at Potters Lane, Ely, Cambridgeshire. He was baptised in St Peter's Church, Broad Street, on Christmas Eve.
1891 census:
Herbert was four months old at the time of the 1891 census. The Cross family were living in Potters Lane, Ely, Cambridgeshire. His father Thomas is shown as a gas works labourer. He was 41 years old. His mother Sarah was 32. Herbert was the youngest of five children living at home. Sophia was 9, Alice was also 9, Tom was 5 and James was 2. Also in the house on the night of the census was Sophia Convine, aged 37 and described as a visitor, presumably a relative of Sarah's. Herbert was born in Ely,
Cambridgeshire, as was his father Thomas and the
other children. His mother had been born at
Prickwillow on the outskirts of Ely. The visitor,
Sophia Convine, was also born at Prickwillow. The
transcript for their entry is here. Herbert was ten years old at the time of the 1901 census. The Cross family were living in Potters Lane, Ely, Cambridgeshire. His father Thomas is shown as a gas stoker. He was 49 years old. His mother Sarah was 42. Herbert was one of seven children living at home. Tom was 15, James was 12, Annie was 8, Sarah was 6, John was 3 and Violet was 2 months. Herbert was born in Ely,
Cambridgeshire, as was his father Thomas and the
other children. His mother had been born at
Prickwillow on the outskirts of Ely. |
|
1914: Herbert's medal record shows that he
signed up as a private soldier with the 11th Suffolks -
that is to say, he signed up after the War began. As the
Official History of the Suffolk Regiment records, At
the outbreak of War, men of Cambridgeshire and the Isle
of Ely who enlisted for infantry were generally sent to
the depot of the Suffolk Regiment at Bury St Edmunds. By
the end of August, however, it was found impractible to
accomodate any more recruits at Bury... From September 5
recruits instead of going to Bury were accordingly
retained in Cambridge, being billetted in the Corn
Exchange... within a few days the numbers had swollen to
three hundred, the men being consequently transferred to
the boys' county school. When I attended this
school, now the Cambridge High School for Boys, sixty
years later, the temporary huts installed to accomodate
the recruits were still in use as classrooms. At last,
on September 25th the Cambridgeshire Service Battalion,
without regiment or number, was an accomplished fact, and
three months later became the 11th Suffolk Regiment.
1915: The Official History of the Suffolk Regiment continues The 11th Battalion remained in Cambridge until May 19th 1915, when it was sent up to Yorkshire, a large crowd assembling at the station to give parting cheers. At one point the 11ths were intended to take part in the action at Galipolli, but the retreat from Suvla Bay by allied forces put paid to this idea. Instead, it appears that the 5th Suffolks, who had taken part in the assault on Galipolli and suffered terrible losses, were reinforced from other Suffolk Regiment batallions, and so, probably before the end of 1915, Herbert Chapman Cross had been transferred to the 5ths, and was soon engaged in the defence of the Suez Canal in northern Egypt.
1916: In 1916 the 5th Suffolks were involved in a number of engagements at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. It is unclear if Herbert was involved in these, as part of the Battalion remained stationed in Egypt on the Suez Canal and an encampment by the Pyramids.
1917: With the War in the east turning in the Allies' favour, on 1st February the Battalion left Egypt for Palestine. In April, they took part in the short but furious Second Battle of Gaza. Patrick Ashton's book Remembering Ely: a history of Ely's war memorial and men of the Great War (2018) records that Herbert was wounded on 9th April. The source for this information may be the Suffolk Regiment records at Bury St Edmunds. The next mention we have of Herbert is his death on October 18th 'from wounds'.
Was it the injuries of 9th April that led to Herbert's death, or had he recovered from them and returned to the battalion? It seems that April's injuries were likely to blame, for after the Second Battle of Gaza the Battalion spent time at rest in an encampment by the sea, and then behind the Gaza line providing working parties for filling sandbags. During the third week of June, the Official History of the Suffolk Regiment records, the battalion moved to Samson's Ridge, the most prominent feature in that Sector, and offering an extensive view of the country beyond Gaza. Every afternoon the white houses of that town caught the sun, making them look like fairy dwellings to sand-weary eyes. The battalion was then in training behind the lines until being issued with helmets on 25th October for what would turn out to be the Third Battle of Gaza, but Herbert had, of course, been dead a week by then. It was not possible to repatriate the wounded from Palestine and Mesopotamia in the same way as it was from northern France, so Herbert may have spent all this time in a field hospital in Gaza.
He was buried in the Gaza War Cemetery in what is now part of the Palestinian State. Unfortunately, the cemetery, though well-maintained, is currently not visitable from the West. He is remembered on the City of Ely war memorial and on the memorial boards in St George's chapel in Ely Cathedral, although his name is curiously omitted from the Holy Trinity parish war memorial, also in Ely Cathedral.