Great War Officer’s casualty pair awarded to Lieutenant J.F. Cross, Royal Flying Corps, earlier a Private in the Transvaal Scottish in German South West Africa before travelling to England and being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment. He would subsequently transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and serving as a Lieutenant he was severely wounded in a flying accident whilst acting as an Observer, suffering a fractured skull and being discharged on 16th August 1918.
Pair: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (LIEUT. J.F. CROSS. R.F.C.)
Condition: Good Very Fine
Joseph Earp Cross was born in King’s Lynn, and later as a resident of 42 Empress Road, Derby he attested at Lichfield on 27th May 1916, declaring that he had earlier served with the Transvaal Scottish for 10 months being discharged from that unit on 3rd August 1915 having seen service in German West Africa making him entitled to a 1914-1915 Star. He had initially served as a Second Lieutenant with the 18th/19th Battalion, Manchester Regiment before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps.
A medical board would find Earp permanently unfit for servie in the Air Force on 16th August 1918 having suffered a fractured skull whilst being shot down by friendly fire on 13th January 1918. A letter from the Military Pensions Commissioner, Pretoria, dated 7th June 1920 stating that he had been awarded a wound gratuity of £250 covering the first 12 months of his disablement and then a wound pension of £50 per year from 12th January 1919 to 11th January 1920, and then requesting that the Pensions Commissioner in South Africa deal with the question of eligibility for the renewal of the wound pension.
