CROSS, Benjamin
Service Number: | 4687 |
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Enlisted: | 31 August 1915 |
Last Rank: | Private |
Last Unit: | 25th Infantry Battalion |
Born: | Ruddingtion, Nottinghamshire, England, 1881 |
Home Town: | Linville, Somerset, Queensland |
Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
Occupation: | Teamster and Farrier |
Died: | Killed in Action, France, 5 November 1916 |
Cemetery: |
Warlencourt British Cemetery Grave II. B. 4., Warlencourt British Cemetery, Warlencourt-Eaucourt, Arras, Nord Pas de Calais, France |
Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Linville War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
31 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4687, 25th Infantry Battalion | |
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12 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 4687, 25th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: RMS Mooltan embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
12 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 4687, 25th Infantry Battalion, RMS Mooltan, Sydney |
Narrative
Benjamin CROSS #4687 25th Battalion
Benjamin Cross, also known as Ben or Bob, was one of five brothers from Ruddington in Nottinghamshire who had emigrated to Australia and settled in Queensland. Four of the brothers appear to have settled in Linville at a property they named “Crossville.”
Ben attended the Brisbane recruiting depot on 31st August 1915. He gave his age as 34 years and stated his occupation as teamster. Mates of Ben from the 25th Battalion described him as a tall raw boned fellow. He was 6’ tall and a photograph of his brother , Thomas, held in the War Memorial’s collection bears a striking resemblance to Ben. He named his brother James, who also lived at “Crossville” as his next of kin.
On 12 April 1916, Ben and the other recruits who made up the 12th reinforcements for the 25th Battalion boarded a train for Sydney where they boarded the “Moultan.” The embarkation roll shows Ben had allocated 3/- of his daily pay to an account in Esk. The recruits landed at Portsmouth in June 1916 and marched into a training battalion camp on Salisbury Plain.
On 1st July, the Battle of the Somme began in France. As the lines of men from Kitchener’s New Army marched across the fields towards the German guns, they were cut down in their thousands. By the end of July, two of the four divisions of Australians which had recently arrived in France from Egypt were also put into the battle; at Pozieres. The 25th Battalion, the unit that Ben would eventually join, was smashed at Pozieres suffering enormous casualties of killed, missing and wounded. When the battalion was finally taken out of the line, it was in desperate need of reinforcements. Ben was posted to France from England in September 1916 and was taken on strength by the 25th on 28th September, joining “B” Company.
By the time Ben joined his battalion, the 25th had been shifted from the Somme north to a rest area around Poperinghe in Belgium. In early October, the rest was over and the battalion went into the line at Ypres, mainly engaged in fatigue work. On the first of November, the 25th marched to a railway station to board a train for France; they were going back to the Somme.
With the coming of winter to the Western Front, the supreme British Commander Douglas Haig ordered the front to be closed up. However he still wanted small contained offensive actions, more to appease his French allies than to gain any strategic advantage. One such action was against a series of enemy trenches on the heights above Bapaume at Flers.
The plan called for one company from each of the 7th Brigade battalions to attack a spot named the Maze under an artillery barrage. The saps leading to the jumping off tapes were knee deep in mud, the temperature was well below zero and the men were laden down with rations, grenades, sand bags, tools, water and ammunition. Zero hour was set for 4:00am on 5th November but the conditions meant that some companies, including “B” Company of the 25th, did not make it to the start line until five hours later, by which time it was light enough for the enemy to clearly observe the build-up. In a sheer stoke of stupidity, the British ordered the attack to go ahead.
100 men from “B” Coy of the 25th advanced towards the Maze. Of those who set off, 77 were either killed or wounded. When the company roll was called, Ben Cross was missing.
Two days later, the Germans retook the section of the Maze that the Australians had briefly occupied. Many of those Australians killed, whether buried or not, were then behind German lines.
Curiously, Ben’s brother Jim received a telegram in Linville advising that Ben was wounded. His file records that he was wounded and missing. Neither of these were correct. A court of inquiry conducted by the 25th in July of 1917, which looked into a number of missing cases from as far back as Pozieres, determined that Ben Cross had been killed in action on 5th November 1916.
Enquiries instigated by the family, mainly a brother, G. Cross of Ruddington, revealed a number of witnesses who saw Ben fall or who saw where he was buried on the battlefield. One witness who was beside “Bob” (as he called him) said he was hit by a shell and killed outright. Remarkably this temporary grave remained sufficiently intact for the Imperial War Graves Commission to identify his remains which were reinterred in the Warlancourt British Cemetery in 1922.
To commemorate the sacrifice of Ben Cross and the other seven men from Linville who paid the supreme sacrifice, Ben’s younger brother Tom designed a war memorial to be erected in Linville. Tom was a photographer and postcard artist. Frank and Jim Cross, Ben’s brothers constructed the memorial, much of which utilises local timber. The Queensland War Trophies Committee allocated a German Maxim machine gun which had been captured by the 9th Battalion to be incorporated in the memorial which was unveiled sometime in the early 1920’s.
Ben’s service medals and the memorial plaque was sent to his eldest brother, Mr G Cross of Bowen.
Submitted 25 February 2022 by Ian Lang
Biography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
Births Sep 1881 Cross Benjamin Basford 7b 226
He was 35 and the son of William and Alice Cross.
Benjamin is remembered in England as follows-
Ruddington Community War Memorial The Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project refers to this memorial as 'a free standing Cross outside the curtilage of the church. To the east of the church in its own grounds and fronting Church Street is the Ruddington War Memorial, slightly elevated on a series of shallow steps and surmounted with a Cross. This column records in Roman lettering ninety names of those who died in both World Wars and one from the war in Korea, and as listed on the war memorials inside St Peter’s. (There are eighty seven names on the memorials inside the church}
The memorial was unveiled on 19 May 1923 by the Duke of Portland and the Rev H T Hayman, and sponsored by public subscription. The architect was Colonel Arthur Brewill DSO VD TD and Mr Sutton, the local butcher, provided the site. Its maintenance is the responsibility of Ruddington Parish Council and the Royal British Legion.
Ruddington - St Peter's Church War Memorial
The parish of St Peter, St Peter's Church, Church Lane, Ruddington NG11 6HA. This brass plaque is in St Peter's church and was donated by Captain F J Ashworth of Ruddington Hall in 1921 (faculty dated 6 March 1920). It is 'an oak-framed brass tablet with an incised decorative border of oak leaves and acorns. A shield in the top left hand corner represents in four quarters: 1) the Major Oak (Nottinghamshire); 2) a spade, pickaxe and plumb line (a builder or a tradesman); 3) a hand-frame (the village framework knitting industry); 4) a golden sheaf (agriculture); and separating the quarters is the ‘cross raguly’ which is the coat of arms of the City of Nottingham.' Dedication: 'To the glory of God and in proud and undying memory of all Ruddington men who have fallen in the Great War 1914-1919 . The souls of the righteous are in the hand of god and there shall be no torment touch them for God proved them and found them worthy. Wisdom lll.l.5. This tablet is erected by Captain F J Ashworth as a thank offering for mercies vouchsafed during the war.'
The cross is in a separate enclosure adjacent to the churchyard. The memorial was funded by public subscription and the land donated by Mr Sutton, the local butcher. The memorial was designed by Lt Col A Brewill, DSO VD TD FRIBA, architect and surveyor to Southwell Diocese. In 1881 he had been made a Lieutenant in the Robin Hood Rifles, later the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, and took command of the battalion on 31 July 1915. The memorial was unveiled on 19 May 1923 by the Duke of Portland, the Rev H T Hayman officiated. There is also a framed Roll of Honour, which includes military details, in the room above the south porch.
Biography
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