The DLI at Large - JF Cronin

Headstone of Second Lieutenant JF Cronin, Vevey St Martin's cemetery, taken by Victoria Oxberry, August 2013

The DLI at Large will be a sporadic series of posts of interesting references and stories of the Durham Light Infantry seen beyond the county.  The first post concerns my investigations into a soldier who piqued my interest. 

I have friends in Switzerland that I visit each year and I discovered that the nearby town of Vevey has the only Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in the country.  I also discovered that it is the resting place of Second Lieutenant JF Cronin, 14^th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.  

Despite being a neutral country, Switzerland played a large role during the First World War.  The headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross were (and still are) in Geneva.  On 21 August 1914 set up the International Prisoners of War Agency dealing with the lists of men taken prisoner, on both sides, as well as being the agency dealing with all the post to and from prisoners.  Switzerland also had a number of locations (hospitals and hotels) where, from 1916, wounded and sick prisoners of war in other countries could be transferred to for treatment.  I assumed that this is what had happened to Second Lieutenant Cronin.

D/DLI 7/579/5 Postcard of the English Hotel at Leysin, Switzerland, from the collection Private Kenneth Robertson, [1916-1917]

While visiting The National Archives earlier this year, I had a look at a file that exists for Second Lieutenant Cronin (TNA ref: WO 339/28146).  John Francis Cronin was born in Battersea around 1888 and joined the 15^th (Territorial Forces) Battalion, London Regiment, in 1911, and was commissioned to the 14^th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry in April 1914.  His working life seems to have been with the Admiralty in a civilian capacity, but at the outbreak of war, he requested to stay with the Admiralty.  The request was turned down and he joined his battalion. 

Letters of late 1916 indicate that Cronin had developed tuberculosis caused by active service, having enjoyed good health until spending three months in France.  The implication of one letter is that men had gone out with the illness and due to the way it was passed on, exacerbated by the living conditions, that they were infecting other soldiers. 

Second Lieutenant Cronin spent time in Pinewood Sanatorium, Wokingham, where ‘he did not make good progress’ and doctors strongly recommended ‘a change in climate’.  I was surprised to learn that men were able to be sent to Switzerland for treatment from their home countries.  In December 1916 Cronin arrived at Arosa, Switzerland, first staying at a hotel.  He was later moved to the newly opened Sanatorium Altein in arrangement with the British Red Cross.  It was expected that he would make a full recovery.  An extension of his stay was granted but on 10 March 1917, Joseph Francis Cronin died in hospital at nearby Chur. 

The records now available on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website show that Second Lieutenant Cronin was initially buried in a British plot at Chur Catholic Cemetery.  The CWGC concentrated the Swiss graves to Vevey St Martin's church and Cronin was moved to his final resting place in November 1923.  

The view from the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Vevey St Martin's church, Switzerland, taken by Victoria Oxberry, August 2013