William Thomas Jones
Memorial: Iron Acton - St James the Less Church
Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment
Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Private 31117
Parents: Reuben and Selina Ann Jones
Home address: Chaingate Lane, Iron Acton, Bristol
Date of birth: 1998
Place of birth: Iron Acton, Bristol
Date of death: 09/07/1917
Buried/Commemorated at: Ypres Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium
Age: 19
Further information:
William Thomas Jones was born in March 1898 in Rangeworthy. He was the son of Reuben and Selina Ann Jones who lived at Chain Gate Lane in Iron Acton. His siblings were Ernest, Norah and Reginald. His father was a farm labourer and he had been born in Iron Acton
William enlisted in Bristol and joined the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. The 8th Battalion was at Oosttaverne in Belgium and William was Killed in Action along with eleven other Gloucestershire Regiment men. This was during an attack on enemy positions east of the village where they managed to establish posts and take seven prisoners. He died in July 1917 at the age of nineteen. He has no known grave, but he is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Ypres in Belgium. He is also commemorated on the Iron Acton Church Memorial Plaque, the Rangeworthy Methodist Chapel Memorial Plaque (now in Rangeworthy Parish Church) and on the Chipping Sodbury Cottage Hospital Memorial Board under Iron Acton (now at Yate and District Heritage Centre)
He was awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque of the First World War
For further information please see the book “Lest We Forget” by Arthur Threlfall Searson
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Yate and District Heritage Centre and the book “Lest We Forget” by Arthur Threlfall Searson and Forces War Records