Lance Corporal 39690 William Lloyd Jones

• Age: 22
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: 15 LANCS FUSILS
• Died on Friday 12th January 1917
• Commemorated at: Etaples Military Cemetery
  Panel Ref: XXI.A.1

William Lloyd Jones was born in Liverpool the second of four children to David Jones and his wife Rebena Rothas (nee Robertson). They were married in a Registry Office in 1891. His father was from Montgomeryshire in Wales whilst his mother was born in Liverpool. Wiiliam was baptised on 27th February 1895.  

William Lloyd had 3 siblings; Robina, Frank, and Margaret who sadly died when William was 10 years of age. 

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 14 Exmouth Street, Liverpool. His father's occupation is shown as house furnishing assistant.

By the 1911 Census the family are living at 49 Grove Street, Liverpool. 

William enlisted in Liverpool joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 15686.

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th 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 7^th November 1915.

At some point he subsequently transferred to the 15th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers as Lance Corporal 39690. He died of wounds on 12th January 1917, aged 22. 

He now rests at Etaples Military Cemetery in France at plot XXI.A.1 where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"OUR GLORIOUS DEAD"  

During the First World War, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained.

The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, the earliest dating from May 1915. 35 of these burials are unidentified.

Hospitals were again stationed at Etaples during the Second World War and the cemetery was used for burials from January 1940 until the evacuation at the end of May 1940. After the war, a number of graves were brought into the cemetery from other French burial grounds. Of the 119 Second World War burials, 38 are unidentified.

Etaples Military Cemetery also contains 662 Non Commonwealth burials, mainly German, including 6 unidentifed. There are also now 5 Non World War service burials here.

The cemetery, the largest Commission cemetery in France, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

William Lloyd Jones is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 60 Left 

Montgomeryshire County War Memorial.

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