1875 - Ben

Arthur Cross' marriage to Mary Elizabeth McLean (couple in centre) Sept 2, 1905. My great grandfather Bernard (Ben) Cross is kneeling at the bottom left. The boy behind him is believed to be my grandfather John Henry (Jack) Cross. The short woman wearing a hat beside him is Ben's wife, Agnes Smith. I suspect the man on the right, bottom Roy, may be Robert Cross. The policeman on the far right is Samuel North, Chief of Police, who signed the marriage certificate.

MANITOBA

The one photograph I had of BEN CROSS (May 25, 1875 -Sept 14, 1939, Vancouver) is uncharacteristically friendly for that era. He is smiling, and his eyes convey both softness and humility. His right hand is half extended as if meant to look like he is emphasizing a point. Ben seems like someone who would readily invite you down to the pub for a draught. 

Though BEN CROSS was born in Birmingham, his story really seems to start in Manitoba. The Smith family was already established in Winnipeg, when Ben’s family arrived around 1888. Two years later, when he was 16, Ben was a waiter in John Henry Smith’s Winnipeg hotel. By the time of his marriage, he was a “news agent” for his father in law’s paper (“The MORDEN MONITOR”). 

Such was the influence John Henry Smith had over this couple, that in 1894 they named their firstborn son John Henry (“Jack”) in his honour. The Smiths had by then become rooted in the border settlement of Morden. Ben chose to follow his father’s profession, in Winnipeg.

The one photograph I have of Ben shows is uncharacteristically friendly for an era in which most people took sombre portraits. He is smiling, and his eyes convey both softness and humility. His right hand is half extended as if meant to look like he is emphasising a point - perhaps the photographer wanted him to assume a familiar position – but the portrait is obviously posed. His army induction papers, mention that Ben was 5’ 5”, with blue eyes and iron grey hair. He seems like someone who would readily invite you down to the pub for a draught. 

VANCOUVER 

Ben and Agnes came west from Winnipeg about 1899.

Vancouver had just been wakened from a recession by the massive influx of prospectors seeking Klondike gold. Ships seemed to be arriving or leaving port every hour throughout 1898. False Creek “began to be filled with log booms and sawmills that belched smoke continuously while the neighbourhood pumped raw sewage into its’ waters.” The city streets had been lighted by electricity for over a decade, and most new houses had telephones. As new blocks of stores sprang up, so did the “help wanted signs” in their windows. The boom didn’t cease when the miners moved on. There were 25,000 people living in Vancouver that year, but a popular saying of that time correctly predicted that there would be 100,000 by 1910. 

There was a great need for housepainters like Ben. He was working for Fletcher P Bishop (Paper Hanger & Decorator) up until 1904. This seems to have been profitable, and he moved across False Creek to 74 Lansdowne.. 

After teaming up with a local clerk to form "Cross and Huestis: "Wallpaper, paperhanging, painting" in 1908, Ben also looked after his family. He may have employed his nephew, Sidney Smith, as a painter for the next three years. His son Jack came to work after he dropped out of elementary school, and in 1911 the company name changed to "Bernard Cross and Son: Wallpaper, paperhanging; painting". (Jack quickly found he hated painting!) 

Ben also employed his father Robert. The 59 year old Irishman, had been painting Vancouver homes for the past three years.

1911 CENSUS VANCOUVER

• Cross Bernard - Head - May 1872 - 39 - Retail Merchant -earned $3,000

• Cross Agnes - Wife - Oct 1873 - 37 

• Cross John H - Son - Jul 1894 - 16- Retail Merchant

• Cross May - Daughter - Sep 1896 - 14

• Cross Bernard - Sep 1898 - 12

• Cross Robt - Son - Sep 1900 - 10

• Cross William - Son - Sep 1902 - 8

• Cross Olive - Daughter - Jun 1905 - 5 

WORLD WAR ONE

Both Ben and his son Jack volunteered. Jack was rejected because of a kidney injury. Ben was 41, and province’s recent real estate crash must have affected his business, for he called himself an “electrician and carpenter” rather than a painter. Yet he had both employed and trained others, and was also old enough to have assumed a fatherly role to many of the recruits accompanying him. Not surprisingly, he was promoted to lance corporal during the voyage. After 6 months of training, he finally reached England, on board the S.S. Metagawe, in the second week of 1916. On April 3rd, 1916, Ben was attached to the 7th field company of engineers in the newly formed Third Canadian Division.

On May 29th, Ben Cross was found absent from his billet. He had not wandered far. Only fifteen minutes had passed between his being reported missing and then found, but he had violated regulations by wandering off without a pass and was sentenced to three days in the stockade. The following day he received a shrapnel wound to his neck, from the periodic German shelling.

There wasn’t a cloud above, when Ben’s detention officially ended on June 2nd. Sky larks had been singing, as if there weren’t a war on. Then hell seemed to descend from the skies, as German shells churned the Divisions position until trenches disappeared, dugouts caved in and surrounding woods were reduced to kindling. It was the most concentrated bombardment yet seen on the Western front. Four hours after it began, the waves of enemy infantry walked forward. Mount Sorrel, Hills 61 and 62 were all overrun. The situation improved only after the attackers stopped and dug in. Ben would have been one of the engineers that helped prepare a new defensive line.

He would have also helped build one of the twelve tunnels at Vimy Ridge. The two longest,  “Goodman” (1,500 meters) and "Grange station subway" (1,100 meters), were in the Third division's sector. Electric lights were set up to help the troops move forward prior to the attack. 

At zero hour the tunnel ends were blown open, and the Canadian Corps emerged to win one of the their most famous victories. The trickle of walking wounded started making their way back almost as soon as the Third Division went forward. More serious cases followed on stretchers.

Years later, when my mother asked what he had done during the war, Ben mentioned carrying the wounded to ambulances. (At Passchendale, the thigh deep mud made this so difficult that 10 men were often needed to carry one stretcher.)

Ben Cross was given two weeks leave in Paris during 1917. Canon Scott, who was there at the same time, wrote: ”Poor old Paris looked very shabby to one who remembered her in former days with her clean streets and many-fountained parks. She wore the air of shabby gentility. The streets were not clean; the people were not well dressed, the fountains no longer played. France had been hard hit by the war, and the ruin and desolation of her eastern borders were reflected in the metropolis...I can imagine nothing worse for a lonely young fellow, who had taken his leave after weary months at the front line, than to find himself in the midst of the heartless gaiety of the French capital.”

The Canadian engineers were busy during the hundred days leading up to the war's end. Eighteen miles of road, seven miles of tramway lines, seven footbridges for the infantry and ten larger ones for the artillery all had to be thrown up swiftly enough for the attack against Canal du Nord. Third Division also had partially destroyed bridges to repair.

Ben didn’t return home to Vancouver until April 1919. Striking British dock workers caused numerous delays between February and May. The Canadian authorities caused further delays when they rejected a number of vessels that were available. Ben finally left England onboard the SS Olympic on March 17. The troops were loaded onto trains in eastern Canada. When his family met him at the station in Vancouver, they were impressed by the fact that almost everyone on the train seemed to be his friend. 

THE 1920S

Henderson’s 1920 Vancouver City Directory lists Ben and his sons Robert and Bill as house painters. His oldest son, Jack, worked for a trading company.

According to the 1921 census, Bernhard and his family were living in a brick apartment building at 611, 7th Av East. (His son John H Cross' family lived in the same building.) 

• Bernard Cross - Head - (47) - Presbyterian - painter/general - earned $1,800

• Agnes - Wife (49) - Presbyterian - none

• Bernard - Son (22) - Presbyterian - painter/general - earned $600

• William - Son (18) - Presbyterian - salesman/store - earned $900

• Olive - Daughter (15) - Presbyterian - clerk/grocery - earned $360

• John Henry Smith - Church of England - Father-in-law (80)

Vancouver had by now long surpassed Victoria as the province’s economic centre. Ben Cross’ older brother, Robert, was among the workers to leave the provincial capital for her more prosperous rival. The 1901 census lists him as a labourer living in Victoria, but from 1917 until 1938 he was one of the support staff at Vancouver General Hospital. 

Dell remembers Robert Cross as a short man who looked remarkably like her grandfather Ben. Their former hometown - the province’s capital - was fast becoming a retirement centre, with a higher proportion of people over 65 than any other place in Canada. Car ferries, from Vancouver and Seattle, would soon bring a steady diet of tourists to enjoy island delights like the Crystal Garden’s pool and dance floor.

Ben's granddaughters have different accounts about his encounter with roller skates. Norm said that on her birthday, she took her skates to her grandparents. Ben was wearing his Sunday best – a pin striped suit – but decided to try the skates out anyway. Dell claimed that he came over to paint their new house and asked to use her skates. Both versions mention his hurtling downhill, out of control. He hit a low fence at the bottom of the hill, and crashed into the garbage heap on the other side. Mom heard his laughter before was able to find out that he wasn’t hurt. She says Ben was  a “good sport” who could laugh at his own expense. 

1931 Census - 2334 St Catherines Street, Vancouver

• Bernard Cross - (Head, born England, entered Canada in 1891) 8 room house earned $3,200 - Church of England

• Agnes Eliza Cross - (Wife, born England, entered Canada in 1888) - Church of England

FINAL YEARS

Ben continue to paint until 1938, but there were sometimes long breaks between jobs. By the late 1930’s, Jack was giving his father $25 a month.

Ben passed away suddenly, collapsing in his home in September 1939

CHILDREN

1. Mae Della Cross (Sept 28 1897, Morden, Winnipeg) m Jon ROSS in Vancouver and Apr 12, 1921.  Visited her brother Jack in the hospital when he was recovering from Asian flu in 1918. Aunty May became a fierce supporter of  John Diefenbaker, who in 1957 was the first Conservative Prime Minister since the First World War to win an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons. May organized his meetings and receptions on the West Coast. One of her most remembered statements: "If Deifenbaker falls, the West falls". Her brother "Jack" was enlisted as bartender at one Conservative gathering. Jack was known to pour especially strong drinks, so this time he was told that the party wished to make some money. (No one got drunk on the weak drinks he mixed that  night!) May continued to support Diefenbaker after his fall to Liberal Lester Pearson in April 1963, and eventual 1967 replacement by Robert Standfield as leader of the Conservative Party. Aunty May was always a special favorite of Jack and Nina's. I remember her as the lady in the blue suit who often talked about politics when she visited Jack's Maple Ridge home. When May lived in an apartment at Park Royal, Vancouver, she sometimes went to lunch with her neice Norm. May often put deposits down on nice things, but usually didn't have the money to pay the bill out. So one day when she and May visited a shoestore, Norm quietly went over to the clerk and paid May's bill.

2. Bernard Cross (Sept 3 1898) married Edna Edith Proctor (d/o Herbert J Proctor & Bridget Keenan abt 1902 in Victoria) in Victoria 31 Dec, 1926. The reputed "Black Sheep" of the family. He was listed as a machinist during the 1920's and a house painter in the 40's. "Barney" was in his early forties when World War II broke out and, like his father before him, volunteered for active service. 

3. Delores Cross

4. Dianne Cross

5. two other sons

6. Robert Cross (Sept 3 1900 - Aug 1 1920 in Vancouver reg # 1920-09-) drowned near Kits beach

7. William Sydney "Bill" Cross (c 1902 - 17 Jan, 1940.) married Mary Helen Molley (d/o John Joseph Molley & Mary Sorkie born in Fernie 1904) in Vancouver 7 Nov 1925. Both Norm and Dell Cross remember him as one of the sweetest Crosses. He worked at Jack's factory on Granville island for a while, but is better known as a housepainter. He died on Vancouver Island 17 January 1940.

8. Olive Cross (c 1905 - Mar 11, 1981) married William Lee (s/o David John Lee & Mary Barnett born abt 1901 in Belfast Ireland) in Vancouver on 17 Aug, 1926. Later married George Hanry Harris, but was a widow when she died in North Vancouver, Mar 11, 1981

9. John Henry Cross - More follows