L/Cpl 24499 Frederick Cross

Frederick enlisted joining the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 24499. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he volunteered in early 1915 when he would have been 17 years old. He served in 6th Platoon, No.2 Company, and arrived in France in 1916.

He was serving as Lance-Corporal No 24499 when he was killed in action on the 30th July 1916, aged 18, at the village of Guillemont, France, during the Somme Offensive.

The 20^th King’s Battalion Diary records:

“At 4.45am prompt the attack was launched. Unfortunately, a thick mist prevailed and it was impossible to see more than 10 yards ahead. This continued until about 6 o’clock when it lifted slightly, but it was still too hazy and impossible to see what was happening 100 yards ahead. This being so, it was not surprising to find that the attacking waves were experiencing great difficulty in maintaining connection.”

At 6am, Lt. RE Melly, No.1 Company, reported that his men had taken the German Maltz Horn trench.

At 6.30am, 2/Lt. CP Moore reported that he had 150 men, 4 Stokes Mortars and 2 Lewis Guns, but he was the only officer. He also said that due to the fog, both his “flanks were in the air” i.e. he was not in contact with neighbouring troops.

At 9.10am, Moore was still not in contact at his flanks, and now he had only 75 men, he had sent out 2 patrols and neither not returned. Later Moore established communication with the French on his right.

Around 10.00am, 2/Lt Musker reported that he had just over a company with him, but his left flank was suffering from German machine gun fire. Later he reported that he had over 30 casualties from the machine gun fire. His flanks were also “in the air”. No contact was made with this party until the remnants returned around 9.30pm, all runners sent were killed or missing. The War Diary states that this group had: ”held the ground won all day, and this permitted the consolidation of the ground won on the Maltz Horn ridge with little interference from the enemy”.

Relief for 20/Kings had been planned for 11.00pm, but it was 5.00am on the 31st July before it took place, ending a tragic day for the Liverpool Pals.

Casualties for 20^th Battalion were 16 Officers and 357 Other Ranks

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30^th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55^th Division during the early hours of the 31^st July. 

The events of 30^th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89^th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.   

He was initially reported as Missing, and his family made enquiries with the British Red Cross on 07th September 1916.  

His name was published in the list of K.L.R. Missing on 14th September 1916. 

King’s (Liverpools) - Cross, 24499, F.; 

His death was later officially assumed to have occurred on or since 30th July 1916. 

Frederick's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01^st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £5-10 went to his mother Cecilia. She made a pension claim in 1924, then living at 46 Orwell Road, Kirkdale (and later at 14 Walton Village, Liverpool). The amount of pension awarded is unclear.

A dreadful footnote to the loss of Frederick was reported in the Liverpool Echo on the 25th April 1917. An inquest held on Thomas Cross (Frederick’s father), a publican, of Great Howard Street, Liverpool, who was found dead in bed with a revolver in his hand. It was stated by the widow that their son, who was at the front, had been missing since last July. In consequence the deceased had been very depressed. A verdict of ‘suicide whilst of unsound mind’ was returned. 

His father was 49 years old.

In 1939 his mother, aged 70 and incapacitated, was living with daughter Margaret, 40, at 6 Bellamy Road, Liverpool.

She died in 1944 aged 74.

Fred is also remembered on the family headstone in Kirkdale Cemetery, Longmoor Lane, Liverpool.

                    ALSO FRED
                   L'POOL PALS
     BELOVED SON OF THE ABOVE
MISSING AT BATTLE OF THE SOMME
   JULY 30TH 1916, AGED 18 YEARS

Grateful thanks are extended to Richard Kearns, who contacted the site, for permission to use the family photograph now shown.