First World War soldier’s remarkable survival story told in new display

This article is from Military History Matters issue 139

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A First World War soldier was saved when a pocketbook he was carrying stopped a sniper’s bullet.

The remarkable story of Private Sydney ‘Syd’ Cross is part of a new display at Knightshayes Court, a Victorian mansion in Devon which served as a hospital during the conflict.

The display is based on research from sources such the 1921 census, and is a joint project by the National Trust and the Findmypast website, on which the census can be accessed.

The Australian-born Cross was serving in a British regiment in Gallipoli in 1915 when he was hit, with the pocketbook he was carrying in his jacket undoubtedly saving his life.

A February 1916 article in The Western Times covered the miraculous survival story, showing Cross recuperating at Knightshayes.

The survival stories of Private Cross and Corporal Cooper, as reported in *The Western Times* on 18 February 1916. Image: British Library Board/Findmypast

It was also reported that the bullet had become wedged within a biblical testament in the pocketbook, bearing these lines from Psalm 91:7: ‘A thousand shall fall by thy side… but it shall not come nigh thee.’

Cross briefly disappeared from public records after the war but turned up again in the recently released census from 1921. Experts at the National Trust and Findmypast established that he had married and found work as a steward for the Cunard shipping company.

Other patients at Knightshayes had similarly close escapes during the war. A Corporal Cooper of the South Staffordshire Regiment was wounded by a shell that burst above his trench in Belgium the same year Cross was shot. Despite suffering 119 wounds, Cooper survived.

Katie Knowles, Assistant National Curator for the National Trust, said: ‘With every new census that is released comes a wealth of detail that we can use to find out more about people associated with [our] properties.’

‘Some of the tales, such as the extraordinary escape from death by Private Cross, paint a vivid picture of individuals during the war,’ she added. ‘We can now learn more about their lives, including the changes that affected them.’

The display at Knightshayes, near Tiverton in Devon, was unveiled earlier this year and is open to the public seven days a week.