J. C. F. Cross
Service no. 27166
Private, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 13th Batallion; formerly 1875, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Killed in action on 29 September 1918, age 26
Son of Mrs. G. Cross, of 161 Hartington Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

James Charles Frederick Cross, who joined up in St. Paul’s Churchyard, London on 14 September 1914, just over a month after war was declared, survived nearly to the end of the war. He died barely six weeks before the end of hostilities.

Cross’s service file, badly damaged in the Second World War, documents his many movements and transfers, but these are difficult to decipher. I can discern that he was first assigned to the Army Service Corps; that he landed in France on 25 March 1913 and was wounded in action two months later; that in June 1916 he was given 10 days’ detention for neglecting to comply with an order; that he joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Etaples on 22 June; and that he was transferred to the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) later that same month. He seems to have been wounded again, in September and was classed PB (assigned to Permanent Base at Etaples, which must have been a welcome relief to soldiers, almost as good as being sent to “Blighty”). On the 16 October he came down with “ear disease.”

A note in the file tells us that Cross’s body was moved to Vieille-Chapelle. When his mother Georgina signed her name with a mark on Form W.5080 she declared herself a widow. There was no mention of Cross’s half-sister sister Beatrice.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James Cross lived at 22 Larkhall Lane, London SW4. The family occupied 3 rooms. James’s father Charles Cross, 67, was a milkman from Devon; Georgina Cross, 47, was from Oxfordshire. They had been married for 23 years and had two children. Beatrice Emily Cross, 36, a child of Charles’s first marriage, was a boot saleswoman born in Limehouse. James Charles Frederick Cross was, in 1911, a warehouseman born in Battersea.

H. H. Crocker
Service no. 203662
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion
Killed in action age 29 on 7 April 1917
Son of Horace Howard Crocker, of 52 Hoppers Road, Palmer’s Green, London; husband of Edith Maud Crocker, of 13 Tregothnan Road, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Herbert Howard Crocker, 23 in 1911, was working as a dairy manager at 2 Myrtle Cottages, Park Road in Hillingdon, Uxbridge, north London. The house had 4 rooms, including kitchen. He and his wife, Edith Maud Crocker, 21, had been married a year and had a one-month-old baby, Evelyn Elsie Crocker, born in the borough of Uxbridge. Herbert was born in Paddington; Edith in Halesworth, Suffolk.

Meanwhile, his parents Horace Howard Crocker and Clara Sophia Crocker were living at 8 Moat Place, Stockwell where Horace was a dairy manager and Clara “assisting in the business”. Their remaining 4 children lived with them.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Herbert Crocker (given as Hubert H. Crocker on the transcription of the census) lived at 131 Sugden Road, Battersea with his family. Horace H. Crocker, 40, was a dairy manager born in St Pancras; Clara S. Crocker, 39, was born in Plumstead, Kent. Each of the children on the census was born in a different location: Horace A. Crocker, 17, an electrical engineer, was born in Finsbury Park; Herbert H. Crocker, 13, was born in Paddington; Frank G. Crocker, 8, was born in Brixton; Gerald Crocker, 4, was born in Wanstead, Essex; Bessie P. Crocker, 2, was born in Battersea. Alice M. Alton, 20, born in Battersea, lived in as a general domestic servant.

W. R. Collett
Service no. S/20722
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Killed in action age 19 on 18 May 1917
Born in Battersea, lived in Stockwell
Son of Reuben John and Helen E. Collett, of 75, Tasman Rd., Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roeux, Pas de Calais, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

COLLETT, W. R., Rifleman, Rifle Brigade.
Joining in June 1916 he was sent to the Western Front at the conclusion of his training and fought at St.Eloi and the Somme. He gave his life for King and country at the Battle of Arras on May 12th, 1917. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“He died the noblest death a man may die,
Fighting for God, and right and liberty.”
75, Tasman Road, Landor Road, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

The Collett family were living in 4 room at 75 Tasman Road in 1911. Reuben John Collett, 44, was a compositor born in Lambeth; Helen Eliza Collett, 44, was born in Battersea. They had had four children, three surviving: Leonard Collett, 21, was an engineer (turner); George Collett, 18, was a machine manager for a printer; William Reuben Collett, 13, was at school. All were born in Battersea.