32 Facts About Gaston Cros

Colonel Marie Augstin Gaston Cros was a French army officer and archaeologist.

Gaston Cros was born in Alsace and was displaced when that territory was incorporated into the German Empire.

Gaston Cros joined the French Army as a lieutenant and saw action in Tonkin before spending several years surveying in Tunisia, receiving the honours of membership of Vietnamese and Tunisian orders and appointment as a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

In 1901 Cros was appointed head of the French archaeological expedition to Girsu, Iraq to continue the work of Ernest de Sarzec.

Gaston Cros was wounded and spent two days directing his troops from a horse-drawn carriage before he was forced to leave his command.

Gaston Cros' name is recorded alongside that of Colonel Pein, who commanded the 1st Moroccan Brigade at Artois, on the Moroccan Division Memorial at Vimy.

Marie Augstin Gaston Cros was born at 2.00am on 6 October 1861 to Hippolyte Cros, a lawyer, and Marie Petronille Reine Scherb at Saverne, Bas-Rhin in the Alsace region.

Gaston Cros volunteered for a five-year commission with the French Army on 25 October 1881 at Nancy.

Gaston Cros was commissioned into the 128th Infantry Regiment as a sub-lieutenant and attended the L'Ecole du Tir in 1885 where he ranked 25th out of 76 participants.

Gaston Cros transferred to the 4th Tonkinese Rifles on 3 June 1887 and saw active service in Tonkin from 19 June 1887 to 14 September 1888, joining the 105th Infantry Regiment as a lieutenant on 5 October 1887.

Gaston Cros was awarded the Tonkin Expedition commemorative medal for his work in the country.

On 25 January 1889 Gaston Cros transferred to the 4th Zouave Regiment and was on active service in Tunisia from 11 March 1889 to 27 April 1898.

Gaston Cros was attached to the Army Geographic Service from 1891 to 1893, and made several topographical surveys of the Sahara desert.

Gaston Cros was appointed a knight of the Order of the Dragon of Annam and a member of the Tunisian Order of Glory on 10 October 1889 in recognition of his service in Tonkin and Tunisia.

Gaston Cros was promoted to captain on 10 July 1894 and became a chevalier of the Legion of Honour on 29 December 1896.

Gaston Cros transferred to the 39th Infantry Regiment on 5 April 1898 and served with them in Algeria from 11 November 1899 to 1 June 1900.

From December 1901 Gaston Cros was placed in charge of the French-led Tello Expedition to the archaeological site of Girsu in Iraq.

Gaston Cros replaced the late Ernest de Sarzec, the French consul of Basra, who died in 1901 and had been excavating Tello since 1877, having initiated the rediscovery of the Sumerian civilization.

Gaston Cros undertook numerous excavations at Tello producing significant numbers of artefacts, some dating from the earliest periods of Sumerian civilization.

Gaston Cros transferred to the 33rd Infantry Regiment on 25 May 1906 and to the 5th Infantry Regiment on 22 December of that year.

Gaston Cros left Tello after his posting to the 5th Regiment but returned in 1909 to conclude his research, for which he was commended by Gaston Doumergue, the Minister of Fine Arts.

Gaston Cros's research, published in the book Nouvelles Fouilles de Tello in 1911, was welcomed by the British Royal Asiatic Society as some of the most important on the subject of ancient Sumeria.

When Gaston Cros left Tello in 1909 the French government was unable to find a suitable successor.

Gaston Cros received the Golden Palms of the Ordre des Palmes Academiques for his academic work.

Gaston Cros was later promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Algerian Tirailleurs.

Gaston Cros subsequently participated in the Zaian War under General Hubert Lyautey, leading a column from Rabat to capture Khenifra.

Gaston Cros's unit was sent to defend Paris in the First Battle of the Marne where it was ordered to take the town of Saint-Prix, which changed hands five times in the first four days of the battle.

Gaston Cros's promotion was confirmed as permanent on 1 November 1914 and he became a commander of the Legion of Honour on 10 April 1915.

Gaston Cros received a further mention in dispatches as "a brave soldier, an experienced great leader, wise, prudent, with natural authority" and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm.

Later that year Gaston Cros led his brigade, as part of the 1st Moroccan Infantry Division, at the Second Battle of Artois - an allied attempt to capture Vimy Ridge with an assault on a 13-mile-wide stretch of the front.

Gaston Cros took particular care to inspire a keen esprit de corps in his men and on the eve of the attack told them: "I am your father and you know that I love you as my children, if you want to show me that you love me in return, fight and kill lots of Boche".

Gaston Cros was one of almost 2,000 men of the Moroccan division killed in that action, as was fellow brigade commander Colonel Pein.