Pte 29686 Thomas Arthur Jones

• Age: 23
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

29686 Private Thomas Arthur JONES, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Thomas Arthur “Tom” Jones was born in Liverpool in 1893 the son of Thomas and his wife Sarah Jane (nee Smith) who were married on the 11th June 1891 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool. Thomas was a 29 year old milk dealer of Bedford Street, father Thomas, whilst widow Sarah Samson was aged 30 of Moor Place, father Edward (one witness was a Sarah Smith).  

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 3 Wolfe Street, Toxteth Park Liverpool. Thomas jr is 8 years old and lives with his parents, sister and three step siblings. His father, Thomas, is  aged 38 and is recorded as a a cow keeper who was born in Mold, Flintshire, whilst his mother is aged 40, born in Moseley, Staffordshire and has no occupation listed. His step siblings, all born in Moseley, are listed as; Mary A. aged 20, her twin brother, John E. aged 20 and George W. aged 16. His sister is Dorothy H. who is 6 years old and was born in Liverpool.

The 1911 Census finds Thomas aged 18 and a grocer's assistant, living with his parents, father Thomas aged 47, a cow keeper born Bodfari, Flintshire, mother Sarah Jane aged 48, born Wednesbury, Staffordshire, who advise that they have been married for twenty years and have had two children. At the time of the Census, they have three children including, George William Sansom (Thomas' stepbrother), aged 25, born 1886 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, is employed as a grocer’s assistant, and Dorothy Harriet Jones is aged 16, born 1895 in Liverpool and has no occupation. They also have their niece Jessie Hadley aged 16, born 1895 in Oldbury, Staffordshire, she is employed as a domestic servant. The family also employ a servant, Alfred Wakefield aged 21, born 1890 in Liverpool, he is also employed as a cow man. 

Thomas enlisted in Liverpool on 05th June 1915 joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 29686.

On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. Tom will have joined his Battalion at Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

He sailed to France with his Battalion on board the SS Invicta on 07th November 1915.

Tom was killed in action at Montauban on the 01^st July 1916, aged 23.

18^th Battalion Diary

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks.

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257.

Thomas' body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and his name 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.”

Family notices were placed in the Liverpool Echo on 14th July 1916 reads:-

JONES - July 4, killed in action, aged 23 years, Private Thomas Arthur Jones (Our dear Tom) of the Pals, the dearly beloved son of Mr and Mrs T. Jones, The Dairy, 3 Wolfe Street, Liverpool. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

“JONES – killed in action aged 23 years, Private Thomas Arthur (Tom) Jones, “Pals”, of 3 Wolfe Street, (Dairy), Liverpool – from his fiancee Hannah (Nance) Bool” 

His death was reported in the local press on 07th August 1916.

Soldiers Effects to father Thomas and Pension to mother Sarah Jane.

He was remembered in the Liverpool Echo on 02nd July 1917: 

His father, Thomas, died aged 68 in the March quarter of 1931.

His mother died aged 84 in the December quarter of 1945.  

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