Bone, Victor Arnold

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Victor Arnold Bone

Captain, 11th Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Killed in action, 18 September 1918, aged 21
Buried at Doiran Military Cemetery, Greece

Victor Arnold Bone was the son of a Llandudno solicitor, Ernest Edgar Bone and his wife Bessie Frances Bone (née Evans). Ernest Bone came from Fenstanton in Huntingdonshire whilst Bessie Evans came from Brinscombe in Gloucestershire which is where the couple married in 1882. Ernest Bone became a partner with Mr George H Pugh of Llandudno in 1888. The Bones had six children, the fifth child and youngest boy being Victor Arnold Bone, born in Llandudno on 7 February 1897. He was baptised on 2 May 1897 and the family’s home address was noted in the Llandudno Parish Register as “Holmdale”. The Census of 1901 records the family living at “Bryn Maelgwyn”. Ernest Bone was unanimously elected chairman of the Llandudno Urban District Council in 1910. In 1911, the family lived at “Ivanhoe”, Fferm Bach Road, Craig-y-Don; Victor is noted as at school. Which school he attended is uncertain though he joined Brighton College in May 1912. He left the college in July 1914.

On the outbreak of war, Victor Bone joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers though he was aged 17 and was still aged 17 when he was gazetted as a temporary second lieutenant on 22 September 1914 by virtue of having been a member of the Officers’ Training Corps. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant on 19 July 1915. It is recorded that Victor Bone’s battalion was the 11th (Service) Battalion RWF that formed at Wrexham in October 1914. The battalion landed in France in September 1915 but with its division, the 22nd, it was diverted to Salonika in October 1915 to reinforce the Greek army. In September 1916, Lieutenant V A Bone was hospitalised with malaria and was treated at the 28th General Hospital, Salonika and on the hospital ship HMHS Essequibo.

For much of the war, the Macedonian Theatre was quiet, but on 18 September 1918, an offensive was launched to liberate Serbia and drive Germany’s Bulgarian allies out of the war. On 18 September, Victor Bone, now promoted to Captain, was killed in action aged 21 during an assault on the Bulgarian fortifications at Dorian in which, despite extensive use of air power to attack the Bulgarian positions, the Bulgarians were able to pick off the attacking troops one by one. He was buried at Doiran Military Cemetery.

Known memorials:

• Brighton College Roll of Honour
• Llandudno Roll of Honour
• Llandudno War Memorial
• Memorial Chapel, Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno