Pte 34393 Robert Jones

The 1891 Census shows John  and Margaret, with their two children (Mary Jane aged 6 years and John aged 2 years) at this address. Their son, John, had been born on 17^th January 1889 and although his parents’ address is recorded as 55 Lowther Street, Birkenhead, he was baptised in St Peter’s Church, Everton on 05^th May 1889. It appears that John died in about 1885.

The 1901 Census shows that the family had moved to 15 Breckfield Road North, Liverpool where Margaret, now a widow, with her son Robert, 8 years, lives with her brother in law, William Jenkins and his wife Mary Jane, presumably Margaret’s sister.

By 1911, Margaret, still a widow, lives at 7 Spofforth Road, Liverpool, with her daughters (Mary Jane, 26 years, and Margaret, 21 years) both of whom work as packers in a tobacco factory (possibly Ogdens) and her son, Robert, 18 years, born Birkenhead and a glass merchant’s clerk.

Robert enlisted in Liverpool in late 1914 joining the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 34393. His medal card shows that he embarked for France on 7^th November 1915.

Although he was killed on 03^rd July 1916, aged 24, there was evidently confusion over Robert’s fate, as his name appeared in the list of Wounded published in the Liverpool Post & Mercury on 24th July 1916 and in the list of those Killed on 14th August 1916.  The pension documents were not received from the paymaster until January 1917, suggesting some delay in determining his official date of death.  

Robert’s body was never identified and he too is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His mother received Robert’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £7.  The pension card, in the name of his mother, Mrs. Margaret Jones, 32 Edensor Terrace, shows that a pension of 10/- a week was awarded from March 1917.  The address is later changed to 67 Netherfield Road, and a notation “payable in Canada” suggests his mother lived there, at least for a while, if not permanently, with a married daughter., Robert's sister now Mary J Salmon.

 

A date noted on the card indicates that his mother died in 1933.

 

We currently have no further information on Robert Jones. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.