Today We Remember

William CROSS
Service no. 13796

Private, 5th Battalion,
The Northamptonshire Regiment

Family Background

William was a farmworker before the outbreak of the War. He was not a native of Aynho because no other families with the Cross name show on the 1901 or 1911 censuses. William, on the other hand, is shown on the 1911 census as a 14 year old farmworker living with Frederick and Mary Wrighton – the parents of Clement and Alfred who both died the next month in the same battle. A large number of young agricultural workers moved around villagers and lodged for a period of time. William almost certainly was one such. He joined up at the outset of war in that first wave of enthusiasm along with his friends in the Wrighton family.

He was in the 5th Battalion which landed in France on 30th May 1915, having been formed in August 1914.

The 5^th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment was a Pioneer Battalion in 12th Division.  It was not involved in the start of the battle of the Somme but will have been brought up to the front to replace the regiments lost in action on those terrible first days. William’s battalion would have been used to dig or repair the trench network. It is therefore probable that he was killed by shell fire rather than as part of an assault.

William has no known grave, his body being unrecognisable or destroyed by the weight of shelling. His name appears on Pier and Face 11A and 11D of the Thiepval Memorial.