Roy (Chopper) CROSS

CROSS, Roy

Service Numbers: 52270, 5022
Enlisted: 11 March 1918
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 40th Infantry Battalion
Born: Emu Bay, Tasmania, Australia, 4 January 1897
Home Town: Wynyard, Waratah/Wynyard, Tasmania
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Tin Miner
Died: St Helens, Portland, Tasmania, Australia, 13 August 1971, aged 74 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Not yet discovered
Memorials:
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World War 1 Service

11 Mar 1918: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 52270, 40th Infantry Battalion
1 May 1918: Involvement Private, 52270, 1st to 3rd (WA) and (TAS) Reinforcements, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
1 May 1918: Embarked Private, 52270, 1st to 3rd (WA) and (TAS) Reinforcements, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
9 Apr 1919: Transferred AIF WW1, Private, Australian War Graves Detachment , France
25 Sep 1919: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 52270, 40th Infantry Battalion, per Port Denison
15 Dec 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5022, 40th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Roy Cross's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Lancelot Dwyer

I remember Roy Chopper Cross being a mate of my father's. One day he came down to our house and pulled a bundle of fur out of his coat pocket and gave it to dad. It was a spaniel pup. Dad named the pup "Tojo" after the japanese emperor.

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Roy was the seventh of eight children (and youngest son) of Thomas Herbert Cross (born 1860 in Morven, Tasmania - aka Herbert) and Emma Jane Medwin (born 1866 in Forest, Tasmania. Thomas and Emma married in 1886 in Horton, Tasmania and settled in Emu Bay where they raised their family. Roy was 15 years of age when his father, a Contractor, killed himself at Rouse's Camp in Waratah, Tasmania. 

By 1916, older brothers -  Reuben (Private, Service No: 2471) had died in Alexandria; and Hubert (Private, Service No:2062) were serving in the AIF. Roy's older sisters had left home - Annie Beatrice to work as a Barmaid in Richmond, Victoria before her marriage to a Police Constable; Lillian May (at 16 years of age) to work as a Domestic Servant in  Macedon, Victoria before her marriage to a farmer. Lillian and her husband operated Oxford Farm as a farm and a Guest House, then during the Depression, Lillian disguised herself as a male and worked as a Railway Camp Cook across the region. Younger sister Myrtle married a Farmer and in 1952 was lost for ten days in mountainous country whilst prospecting in the Mount Scott and Mount Mauris region near Scottsdale. 

Roy was working as a Tin Miner in St Helen's when he enlisted in the AIF in 1918. He served as a Private (Service no: 5220) with the 1st General Reinforcements, 40th Infantry Battalion and Australian Burials Detachment and Graves Registraion Detachment in France. 

Roy returned to St Helen's in Tasmania following his Discharge in December 1919. He was working as a Miner when he married Zoe Teresa Florence Munroe (born 1885 in St Helen's in Tasmania). Zoe was working at the Ringwood Hotel in Wilmot, Tasmania. Roy and Zoe settled in St Helen's where Roy continued working as a Miner until Zoe's death in 1942. Roy then spent a couple of years as a Fisherman before working as a Bridge Labourer. Roy died in St Helen's in 1971.

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