“A good soldier is always as proud of the colours he wears on his shoulder as the colours he wears on his breast. He knows that each brigade and battalion possesses a soul of its own, and he is proud to belong to his battalion and to worthily wear its colours.” James Green from Green, James. “News from No Man’s Land” (Charles H. Kelly, London, 1917). James Green was Senior Chaplain to the Australian Imperial Force in WW1.
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| London Rifle Brigade Insignia |
Harold Henry Victor Cross was born on 1st March 1897 in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. His parents were Frederick Peter Cross, a Master Printer, and his wife, Clara Jane Cross, nee Benham.
During the First World War, Henry served in the London Rifle Brigade. He was severly wounded fighting on the Somme on 9th September 1916.
After the war, Harold married Eleanor Cearns in West Ham in 1921. By 1939, the couple were living in Redbridge, Ilford, Essex. Harold died in 1967.
Harold’s WW1 poems were published as “A Young Soldier’s “De profundis” (Erskine Macdonald, London, 1916).
A QUIET NIGHT ON THE WESTERN FRONT
We marched along, the sun was high;
We marched along — the halt was nigh;
We marched along, a little parched,
It seemed we marched — and marched — and marched;
We sang a song, a little dry,
We sang a song, a halt was nigh.
The whistle blew, ah! welcomed cry--
'Halt!'--welcomed rest from wearied road,
With opened tunic, laid-down load;
Ah! welcomed rest with opened vest,
'Twere worth that strain to rest again!
H. H. V. Cross, London Rifle Brigade. 'A Route March in Northern France, 1916.'
NOTRE DAME DE DÉLIVRANCE
From city homes — from country homes we came;
From mother's love and father's gift we came,
A wind most terrible blew o'er earth's seas;
It waved a smouldering ash, and blazed up war;
The smoke and heat of that great Hell drew us,
And from our lives we came to live, to live.
From sluggish routine, sluggish wrong we came.
From heedless walks, from ageing rust we came - - we called it life.
'Twas not! We came to live.
Out of the profound, profound we'll come, out, up;
Out of the deep we'll come, not from the shallows.
H. H. V. Cross,
London Rifle Brigade.'A Young Soldier's De Profundis.'
Sources: Find my Past, Free BMD and
Catherine W. Reilly. “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978), P. 100
Green, James. “News from No Man’s Land” (Charles H. Kelly, London, 1917)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67351/67351-h/67351-h.htm
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25932/25932-h/25932-h.htm
