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The cross commemorates the members of the 10th Infantry Battalion who died in service or were killed in action at Pozieres in France during World War One.

As a memorial to their comrades who fell at Pozieres, in France, the 10th Battalion A.I.F. Club is seeking permission from the Government to erect shrine at the rear of the State War Memorial. This shrine would house the wooden cross erected to mark the common grave in which many of those killed in the 1916 offensive were buried. The cross actually stood in France for a number of years. When the Australian cemetery was finished by the War Graves Commission, the cross was returned to Australia and forwarded to the 10th Battalion-the first South Australian unit to be formed. The shrine would be in the form of a canopy of rough stone. Inside would be a stone base, on which the cross would be housed in a steel case with a shatter-proof glass front. The shrine would be similar to those seen on the wayside in France. 

The idea originated with the secretary of the club (Mr. G. Edmonds), who has written to other unit clubs in South Australia, who also have Pozieres crosses. If these others fall in with the idea, it is hoped that four or more shrines will be erected. These, it is stated, would add to the War Memorial and help to have paid to it the respect which Mr. Edmonds says is sometimes lacking. Letters have been sent to the unit clubs, and when replies have been received, a conference will be held. The Government, it is understood, views the subject sympathetically. It is hoped to have the shrines finished in time to be unveiled on Anzac Day.

According to Australia's war historian (Mr. C. E W. Bean), the site of the Pozieres- Windmill and the ridge between Pozieres and Mouquet Farm was outside Gallipoli, Australia's most sacred acre. "Even during the war it was recognised that no corner of France was so thickly sown with Australian dead as the summit of this ridge," Mr. Bean says. Casualties in the Pozieres-Mouquet Farm operations between July 13 and September 26, 1916, were:-First Division, 7,654; Second Division. 8,114: Fourth Division, 7,058. The battle of Pozieres, on July 23, was the first offensive operation in which the 10th Battalion took part in France, and it was then that Capt. A. S. Blackburn, now City Coroner, won South Australia's first V.C. in the war.
News (Adelaide), 3 November 1936.  

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