Arthur Amos Cross was born in Hemel Hempstead on Wednesday, 12th October 1881. His mother was Elizabeth Cross and he had two half-sisters: Minnie, who was five years older; and Lizzie (Elizabeth), who was three years younger. His mother Elizabeth died in 1895 when she was only thirty-nine years old and Arthur and his sisters were then raised by their Uncle and Aunt, Alfred and Ada Redding. As children they lived next door to Alfred and Ada at 6 Fishery in Boxmoor, whilst at number 10 their Grandmother Emma lived with their Uncle Fred, Aunt Jane and their cousin Fred. Arthur’s mother Elizabeth kept house for Edward Gee in return for board and keep.

Arthur went to school at Boxmoor JMI where he successfully completed four of the seven Standards. In October 1893 he was absent from school due to a fever, but his teacher recorded a general attendance issue in Arthur’s class: “…over 20 boys are absent this afternoon ‘acorning’. St. IV do not attend well and are an awful drag”. A year later the school log again records attendance issues relating to Arthur’s class-mates: “Oct 12th…29 boys were absent this afternoon the majority of them ‘blackberrying’”. It is not known if Arthur participated, but seven days after the ‘blackberrying’ incident he had reached the school leaving age and he went off to start work as a ‘Paper Boy’.

The following year he started working as a ‘Wood Sawyer’ with John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley Mills. He continued to live with his Uncle and Aunt when they moved from Fishery, around the corner to 59 Horsecroft Road in Boxmoor. He lived there until he went to war. Arthur enlisted in June 1915, attesting at Hemel Hempstead and joining the Hertfordshire Regiment. He was posted to Bury St. Edmunds for training and in early 1916, he was sent to France to join the 1/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment. He arrived at the billets in Bethune on the 3rd or 7th January when 126 NCOs and men arrived as new drafts. By the middle of the month he was on the move as the Battalion marched to the support area at Givenchy. It was mid-April near Festubert, before Arthur went into the trenches for the first time and it was not until October that he saw his first significant action when he fought in the Battle of Ancre Heights. One month later he fought in the last action of the Somme Offensive at the Battle of Ancre, which he came through unscathed although 147 of his comrades were not so fortunate.

The Battalion now moved to Belgium and took up position at Canal Bank near Ypres, in preparation for the next planned offensive. This came on the 31st July 1917 when the 1/1st Herts were heavily engaged in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres which will ever be remembered as the horror of ‘Passchendaele’. The 1/1st Herts casualties at Pilckem were extremely heavy with some 459 men lost as the Battalion War Diary recorded: “Estimated casualties to the other ranks were 29 killed, 5 missing believed killed, 132 missing, 68 wounded & missing, 223 wounded & 2 died of wounds, making a total of 459 casualties to other ranks. Died of wounds; Officers 2, OR's 6. Missing; Officers 9, OR's 120. Wounded; Officers 8, OR's 180.” Arthur’s good fortune held however and he survived the carnage.

In August the Battalion were in support at the Battle of Langemarck shortly after which, on the 9th September, Arthur was awarded some very welcome home leave. He returned to Hemel Hempstead to see family and friends and take a well-deserved rest. Little did he realise that this would be the last time he would see home. He returned to his Battalion on the 18th September, just in time to fight at the Battle of the Menin Road two days later. It was during this action, when Arthur was in the trenches, that his fortune finally gave out. A shell hit the trench and he was killed instantaneously.

Arthur died on Friday, 21st September 1917. Following his death, a letter was received by his Aunt, now widowed, relating the circumstances of his demise.

Records indicate three differing dates of death for Arthur: the above letter states the 24th September; the Army ‘Register of Effects’ states the 26th September; whilst the official War Office confirmation records the 21st September 1917. It is this last date that I have used in his biography.

Arthur was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley.

 

Arthur is Remembered with Honour on the Tyne Cot Memorial, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 153.

He was 35 years old when he died.

Arthur was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.