Pte 17392 Thomas Harry Jones

• Age: 29
• From: Guilsfield, Montgomeryshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 5th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Daours Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: II.B.1

Thomas Harry Jones was born in the June quarter of 1886, his birth registered in Llanfyllin, to the Rev Owen Baldwyn Jones, and his wife Elizabeth (nee Morris). His parents married in Chester in 1884. His father was a Calvinistic Minister, and so the family moved around North Wales and Merseyside. 

Prior to enlisting Thomas was working as a grocer, and living as a lodger with an aunt on Merseyside, but he gave his address as Montgomery.  

Thomas enlisted as Thomas Harri at St George's Hall, Liverpool on 31st August 1914, joining the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 17392. He gave his age as 28 years and 5 months and his occupation as a grocer, born in Welshpool. He was described as being 5 foot 3 inches tall, weighing 128lbs, 38” chest, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. He stated his religion as Presbyterian and as his next of kin was his father Owen, of the Post Office, Montgomery. 

The 19^th Battalion trained locally at Sefton Park and remained living at home or in rented accommodation until November 1914. They then moved to the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 19th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. He arrived in France on 07^th November 1915.

His service record shows:- 

Thomas Harri Jones died of wounds, aged 29, on the 05th July 1916, having been wounded in the first days of the Battle of the Somme, and he now rests at Dauors Cemetery Extension grave no II.B.1. where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"Hyd oni wawrio y dydd" - (Until the day dawns)

The preparations for the Somme offensive of July 1916 brought a group of casualty clearing stations (the 1st/1st South Midland, 21st, 34th, 45th and Lucknow, section "B") to Daours. The extension to the communal cemetery was opened and the first burials made in Plots I, II, Row A of Plot III and the Indian plot, between June and November 1916. The Allied advance in the spring of 1917 took the hospitals with it, and no further burials were made in the cemetery until April 1918, when the Germans recovered the ground they had lost. From April to the middle of August 1918, the extension was almost a front line cemetery. In August and September 1918, the casualty clearing stations came forward again (the 5th, 37th, 41st, 53rd, 55th and 61st) but in September, the cemetery was closed. There are now 1,231 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension. The total includes special memorials to four men of the Chinese labour corps whose graves in White Chateau Cemetery, Cachy, could not be located. The adjoining communal cemetery contains two First World War burials made before the extension was opened. The extension was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

A telegraph dated 05th July 1916 is sent from 45 C.C.S. to Preston Records Office - 17392 Jones T.H. 19/KLR, GSW right knee, amputation, dangerously ill. Inform relatives. His sister replied on the 13th requesting more information. Death was certified.  

He was reported as died of wounds in the Liverpool Daily Post on 22nd August 1916

Thomas was not the only dreadful loss that the family had to endure as his elder brother James Morris Jones who joined the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 22135. He was serving with the 17th Battalion when he died of wounds on 08th May 1918. He rests at Arneke British Cemetery.

Montgomery War Memorial

Montgomeryshire County War Memorial.

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