Mar. 26—Wonder if any other Greater Nanticoke Area graduates met English royalty?
Among the 13 graduates of Nanticoke High School in 1906, one would be awarded the British Military Cross for bravery during World War I.
U.S. Army Lt. Dr. James Elmer Croop received the honor for “gallantly on the field when the Germans attacked the British lines at the commencement of the Second Battle of the Marne,” according to the Evening News on March 27, 1919.
Croop received the decorated citation from King George V on Feb. 22, 1919.
“I want to thank and heartily congratulate you for the valuable service rendered to my troops for one and one-half years,” the King of England said to Croop, as the Evening News story reported.
Croop was a 1906 graduate of Nanticoke High School having resided with his parents Mr. and Mrs. James Croop on South Hanover Street, Nanticoke. During the commencement ceremony, the graduates were required to perform a musical number, dance or give a speech.
Croop gave a speech about the preservation and protection of Niagara Falls from commercial and industrial development. As he had a fascination of the Great Lakes, it was no surprise Croop established a medical office in Erie, Pa., in 1912.
After graduating from Nanticoke, Croop elected not to work in the coal mines or railroads but attended and successfully graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
With World War I underway in Europe and the United States entry into the Great War in April 1917, Croop enlisted his services on June 26, 1917, and was immediately commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Medical Corps.
Croop was called to active service Aug. 7, 1917, and after three weeks of military combat training, he sailed to England in September 1917, and was stationed for several months at a military hospital in Canterbury until…