In 1908 Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P., the 76th Master General of the Order of Preachers appointed Pope professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.

In 1915 after the deaths in World War I of two parishioners and the Priory's garden boy, who had been adopted by the Dominican Brothers, Father Pope sought to memorialize these men.

The cross came to memorialize not only the fallen residents of the village, but soldiers from South Africa, Australia, Canada and France.

[4] On its centennial anniversary the memorial was rededicated, the Princess Royal and other local dignitaries attending.

[2][6] A memorial volume was published as Kieran Mulvey, Hugh Pope of the Order of Preachers (London: Blackfriars Publications, 1954).