Rutland village to return Somme crucifix after 107 years

A crucifix plucked from the rubble of the Somme battlefield and brought to England is to be returned to its original home in France.

The cross was originally from the church of Doingt-Flamicourt, which was destroyed, along with the rest of the town, during the World War One battle.

It is believed it was salvaged by a British Army chaplain and placed in All Saints Church in Tinwell, Rutland.

More than a century later, it is to be taken back.

Doingt, near Amiens, was one of many settlements wiped from the map during the 1916 campaign that claimed more than 300,000 lives.

Former All Saints church warden June Dodkin said: "On Remembrance Day 2018 we were commemorating the centenary of the war and the village priest asked if there was anything interesting in the church.

"We suggested the crucifix which we knew, from records, had come from Doingt.

"There was a 16-year-old boy in the congregation, Jonno McDevitt. He looked at it and said 'shouldn't we send it back?'

"We were all a bit stunned. It had never occurred to anyone as we thought Doingt was destroyed.

"But he got his phone out, looked it up and that's when we discovered the place - and the church - had been rebuilt."

Mrs Dodkin said that discovery led to emails being sent to Doingt's mayor, raising the prospect of sending the cross back.

Special permission was granted by the Diocese of Peterborough.

The coronavirus pandemic put the plan on hold, but a 10-strong delegation from Tinwell will take the 22in (56cm) oak cross, bearing the figure of Jesus, back to Doingt in June.

Mrs Dodkin added: "They are extremely excited about the prospect of the cross being returned in Doingt - they were very surprised to hear it has been in our church all this time - and we are looking forward to taking it.

"They are arranging a number of events, receptions and ceremonies to mark the occasion.

"It sounds like we will be very well looked after."

Rev Olwen Woolcock, priest-in-charge of the parishes of Ketton and Tinwell, said there had been several false starts in the attempts to discover how the cross had come from Doingt to Rutland.

The answer came, she said, from Sir Giles Floyd who worships at All Saints who explained the cross was found by Parson Percy Hooson.

Parson Hooson served during the Somme campaign as a chaplain and later took up a post at Tinwell in 1932.

She said: "Sir Giles told us Parson Hooson, described by his family as a great forager, picked it up from among the rubble of the battlefield.

"We assume he brought the crucifix with him and placed it on the altar."

She added: "After all the delays of Covid, the visit to Doingt is going to take place this summer and the crucifix will be returned to where it belongs.

"It is a symbol of hope and the promise of new life - a village once destroyed is rebuilt; where there was trauma and death, today there is life and community.

"The crucifix is like the last piece of the jigsaw in that restoration, taken back to where it belongs."

The return of the cross has been co-ordinated with Doingt villager Hubert Boizard, a member of local history group, Mémoire de Doingt-Flamicourt.

He said: "I look forward to meeting our English friends, to remember the past when their country defended France and freedom.

"This crucifix has a very strong symbolic value as a token of peace and hope.

"The return of the crucifix symbolises the friendship between our two nations who fought together for freedom."

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