Three Wooden Crosses

This week we have another post by Steve Shannon.

D/DLI 7/920/10(5) Drawing by Captain Robert Mauchlen of soldiers attacking the Butte de Warlencourt

In early 1917, the German Army pulled back from the devastated Somme battlefield to a new trench system fifteen miles to the east, leaving a wasteland of shattered trenches, mud-filled shell holes and ruined villages. Into this wasteland the British Army advanced.

Within a few weeks, three wooden crosses had been erected on a shell-blasted, white chalk hill, in memory of the DLI soldiers of the 6th, 8th, and 9th Battalions, who had died attacking the hill on 5 November 1916. This hill was the Butte de Warlencourt and the three crosses remained on the Butte until autumn 1926. They were then brought home to the North East.

6th Battalion, DLI, memorial cross, St Andrew's, South Church, Bishop Auckland, taken by Steve Shannon 2006

The one for 6th Battalion went to St Andrew’s, South Church, Bishop Auckland; the one for 8th Battalion to Chester le Street Parish Church; and the one for 151st Brigade, the largest, to the Regimental Chapel in Durham Cathedral. And there they stayed until 2006. 

In 2006, to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, I arranged a small exhibition in the DLI Museum and the centrepiece was to be the three crosses. Contact was made with the relevant authorities early in 2006 and, after some negotiation, the loans were agreed.

8th Battalion, DLI, memorial cross, Chester le Street Parish Church, taken by Steve Shannon 2006

Before arriving with a van on 7 June, I had already recced and photographed the crosses and, whilst the pick-ups at St Andrew’s and the Cathedral were straight forward, the cross at Chester le Street was mounted high on a wall. A ladder, a soft brush to remove cobwebs, WD40, and a good screwdriver were all required. Needless to say I held the bottom of the ladder for one of the Museum’s Visitor Assistants to climb. 

The exhibition The Somme Remembered opened on 10 June 2006, and, as well as the three crosses, featured original letters, photographs, diaries, postcards, trench maps, plus a sketch of the Butte de Warlencourt drawn by Captain Robert Mauchlen in November 1916 (DCRO ref: D/DLI 2/9/1) and a highly-critical report written by Lieutenant Colonel Roland Bradford VC after the failure of his battalion’s attack on the Butte (DCROref: D/DLI 2/9/37). These items, part of the DLI’s archive, had been specially loaned to the Museum by Durham County Record Office.

But the centrepiece was the three crosses. 

151st Brigade memorial cross, the Regimental Chapel, Durham Cathedral, taken by Steve Shannon 2006

Currently (until 20 November 2016), all three crosses are back together on display outside the Regimental Chapel in Durham Cathedral to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. 

https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/whatson/butte-crosses

When you look at the three crosses in the Cathedral, you may wonder why the 6th and 8th Battalions’ crosses are on display but not the 9th Battalion’s. Instead, there is an ornate cross to the memory of the men of the 151st Brigade that was made up of 6, 8 and 9 DLI. 

This is, in fact, 9 DLI’s cross specially made by the battalion on the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Roland Bradford VC. This cross was designed by the architect Captain Robert Mauchlen and constructed by Private Sutton from wood supplied by the Royal Engineers, with lettering by Sergeant Mitchell. 

And, if you look closely, you can still see near the bottom of the wooden plinth supporting this cross '9 D.L.I.' painted in black.

Base of the 151st Brigade memorial cross, taken by Steve Shannon 2006