Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Musician C. W. Cross, Royal Marine Band - aboard H.M.S. Cornwall at the battle of the Falkland Islands 1914

1914-15 Star (R.M.B. 1526 Mus. C. W. Cross); British War and Victory Medals (R.M.B. 1526 Mus. C. W. Cross) good very fine (3) £100-140

Charlie Ward Cross was born in Battersea, London on 11 February 1894. He enlisted into the Royal Marines as a Band Boy on 24 March 1909 and was ranked as a Musician in March 1911. He served on the armoured cruiser H.M.S. Cornwall, March 1911-July 1913 and again, October 1913-March 1917. As such he was aboard the cruiser when it was part of the British squadron under Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee that engaged the German East Asian Squadron commanded by Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee at the battle of the Falkland Islands, 8 December 1914; H.M.S. Cornwall was involved in the sinking of the German light cruiser S.M.S. Leipzig. Cross was paid a prize bounty for the battle. In January 1915 she took part in operations off the coast of German S.W. Africa; in April the ship was off the coast of East Africa, involved in the blockade of S.M.S. Königsberg in the Rufiji River and later in 1915 she was sent in support of the Dardanelles operations. Later posted to the China Station, she returned to convoy duties in the Atlantic in 1917. Musician Cross’s last wartime posting was on the new light battlecruiser, H.M.S. Courageous, April 1917-January 1919. He was on the ship at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, 17 November 1917. Cross was discharged on 31 March 1922. With copied service paper.