Browse crosses

Location:  On the Lower slopes of Corndon Down, off the road to Sherwell.

O/S Grid Ref:  SX/68326/73896          Longitude/Latitude (Degrees+/-):  -3.85996/50.54995

Map location:  Click here to view map.

Purpose: Erected in memory of Lieutenant Evelyn Cave-Penney, who was killed by a sniper in Palestine in the First World War.

Size: 4 feet 3 inches (1.30 metres) tall. 1 foot 10 inches (0.56 metres) across the arms.

Information: This is a relatively modern cross mounted on a large, waist high, boulder known by the name of ‘The Belstone Bible'. The north face of the socket stone is inscribed:

                              TO THE GLORY OF GOD

cave-penney_plaque.jpg (161600 bytes)AND TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF
EVELYN ANTHONY CAVE PENNEY
LIEUT. Q.V.O. CORPS OF GUIDES
FELL IN PALESTINE WHILST
GALLANTLY COMMANDING HIS MEN
JUNE 8TH 1918 AGED 19
                                LOOK UP AND LIFT UP YOUR HEADS

 
Evelyn Anthony Cave-Penny was the second eldest of the four children born to father, Frank Cave-Penney, and mother, Amelia Hine.  Evelyn was born in Exeter on 13th November 1898 and was educated at Oxford and Middlesex.  In November 1916, he was commissioned into the elite regiment of Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides, within the Indian Army.  He spent his first year in the Army posted to the Pakistan border in the north-west of India.  He was then, in November 1917, posted to Mesopotamia where his regiment merged with the 11th Indian Cavalry Brigade, where he was later promoted to Lieutenant.  In June 1918, he found himself serving in the reserve trenches to the north-east of Jerusalem.  On June 8th, he and his men were ordered forward into the front line in the battle against the Turkish Forces.  It was during these manoeuvres that he was shot dead by a sniper.  As well as being commemorated by the cross shown on this page, he is also commemorated in the Ramleh Military Cemetery in Israel.  Evelyn's younger brother, Roy, also lost his life in war, during World War II.