The Somme Cross in England
This large wooden cross is a memorial to the men of the 1st Division of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), who died amidst the brutal battle at High Wood during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. Standing approximately nine feet tall, the cross is not only a memorial to those lost but a witness to the devastation of war itself, for it is formed from timbers salvaged from the ruined village of Bazentin.
What makes this unique cross especially remarkable is its journey and survival. The 1st Division, among the first of the British army to join the First World War, in August 1914, was made up of men sent from Aldershot, straight to the front line. Having fought in the Battle of Mons, the Battle of the Aisne, the First Battle of Ypres, and the battles of Aubers Ridge, Loos and the Hohenzollern Redoubt, by 1916, the division had already suffered catastrophic losses. The Battle of the Somme, however, commencing on July 1, 1916, saw unprecedented suffering, and the 1st Division's casualties contributed to the staggering toll of over 8,000 British and German lives lost within the small, blood-soaked patch of land.
After the battle, the 23rd Field Company Royal Engineers, part of the 1st Division, erected the cross from the remnants of Bazentin, where it stood as an immediate memorial on the battlefield itself. After 10 years, however, fearing the wood would decay, the veterans of the 1st Division decided to rehome the memorial in Aldershot, where it was first erected outside the 1st Division Headquarters for over a decade. In 1939, it was moved to its current location, sheltered in the south porch of All Saints Church.
Unlike other similar wooden crosses from High Wood, which were either destroyed during subsequent battles, coated in preservative paint or succumbed to woodworm, this cross has survived in its original state.
After Kaiser Wilhelm II's infamous dismissal of the British Expeditionary Force early in the war as a "contemptible little army.", the force defiantly adopted the moniker "The Old Contemptibles." This name is forever etched into Aldershot's history, as it is "Old Contemptibles Road", which leads to the All Saints Church and its memorial to the men of Aldershot who did not return from the Somme.
