Jones, Frederick William

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Frederick William Jones

5784, Private, 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Killed in action, 16 May 1915, aged 22
No known grave (Le Touret Memorial, France)

CWGC registered (no family details)

Frederick William Jones, the son of John and Mary Jones was born in Llandudno on 26 April 1893. Four years later, he was admitted to St. George’s National School, his home address being given as “Holywell House”, Llandudno. In the 1901 Census of Wales, John Jones is described as a town porter and the family lived at “Refane”, Llandudno; Frederick had four siblings: Rose (9), Jack (5), Primrose (3) (wife of John James Whewell [qv]) and David (1). Ten years later, the family lived at 6 Tyn-y-coed, Great Orme; Fred (17) was described as a fisherman and he had another four younger siblings: Mary (8), Gwen (6), Eleanor (4) and Alan (2).

For a period before the Great War, Frederick Jones served in the Welsh (Carnarvonshire) Royal Garrison Artillery of the Territorial Force. This service had terminated when on 31 August 1914, Frederick Jones volunteered to join the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Llandudno. He gave his age as 23 although he was only 21, possibly because he had joined the Territorial Force when underage. His stated trade was as a boatman and he gave his next of kin as John Jones, of “Anglesea Villa”, Great Orme. He was mobilised same day at Wrexham into the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion with a regimental number of 5784.

The 1st Battalion RWF had been in Malta at the outbreak of war and disembarked at Zeebrugge on 7 October 1914. The Battalion suffered severe casualties during the First Battle of Ypres on 30 October 1914. Frederick was probably in either a draft of 303 reinforcements that arrived on 11 November or a draft of 151 on the following day.

Frederick Jones was killed in action on 16 May 1915 aged 22 at the Battle of Festubert. The War Diary for that day records the casualties of the other ranks: killed – 118, wounded – 271, missing – 164, wounded and missing – 6. Frederick Jones has no known grave.

Known memorials:

• Le Touret Memorial, France
• Llandudno Roll of Honour
• Llandudno War Memorial
• Memorial Chapel of Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno
• St. Tudno’s Churchyard, Great Orme