Pte 22434 John Alexander Jones

In 1901 John Alexander is living at 419 Stanley Road, Kirkdale, with his maternal grandparents, John and Ann Blackley and his aunt Agnes.  His grandfather is a mariner, his father is 35, a general carter, his mother is 31, Jessie is 7 and John 4.

 

His father died in November 1910, aged 45, living in Juliet Street.

 

The Census of 1911 finds them at 18 Juliet Street, Kirkdale. His widowed mother is 40, Jessie is 17, a factory hand, John is 14, an office boy for F. Wilson, team owner, Agnes, 9, is at school and Isabelle is 4.

 

John enlisted in Liverpool on 12th November 1914  as Private 22434, joining the 20th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He gives his occupation as clerk, and his age as 19 years and 150 days.  He added a year to his age in order to serve overseas, as he was only 18.  On another page of his record his age is shown as 18 years and 5 months on enlistment.  He is described as being 5’ 6” tall, weighing 124 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair.  He gives his religion as Church of England (another page notes Baptist), and his mother, Mrs. Isabella Jones, 17 Queen’s Road, Bootle, as his next of kin. He states he currently belongs to the Boys Brigade (a youth organisation whose object is "The advancement of Christ's kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness.")

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th 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

John shipped to France with his battalion from Folkestone, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.

 

His mother married Herbert Williams in March 1916.

 

In February the 20th Battalion moved into trenches at Maricourt. The War Diary records all available men employed making dugouts and filling water tanks, enemy artillery active. On the night of 6th-7th the enemy fired shrapnel shells at a communication trench under construction. Casualties: 1 O.R. killed, 2 O.R. wounded.

John was one of the two wounded men as his service record shows:

 

07/2/1916 admitted No.5 Casualty Clearing Station, GSW back

10/2/1916 admitted 2nd (Can?) General Hospital, SW (shrapnel wound) back

26/2/1916 to England from Boulogne on Hospital Ship S.S. Dieppe

27/2/1916 admitted Wharncliffe War Hospital, Sheffield, multiple GSW back

2 shell fragments removed 

18/4/1916 discharged

 

01/12/1916 returned to France and posted to 18th Battalion Etaples

09/12/1916 posted to 11th Bn 

10/12/1916 joined 11th Bn in the field

 

01/7/1917 granted Class I professional pay

04/12/1917 granted leave to U.K.

22/12/1917 rejoined from leave

 

09/2/1918 to Field Ambulance, sick

09/2/1918 to 97 (CP) sprained foot

14/2/1918 rejoined unit in the field

 

In January 1918 the battalion have taken up position near St. Quentin. On 21st March the Germans launch “Operation Michael” with a 4:30 a.m. devastating concentration of artillery shells, both high explosive and gas, on the British positions. The Pals battalions received orders to man battle stations and the 19th moved off for Vaux, then that night were ordered to mount a counter attack the next day on the newly captured German positions at Roupy.  They dig in near the village cemetery.  Poorly dug in and poorly equipped for a long fight, they hold out against the relentless German attack “despite the certain knowledge that they had neither hope of victory nor hope of relief” (Graham Maddocks).  The orders were to defend the position until killed or captured.  

 

John was declared Missing between 22nd-30th March 1918.  

 

His name appeared in the list of Missing published in the Weekly Casualty List on 4th June 1918.

 

His CWGC record states that he died between 23rd and 30th March 1918.

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Bn of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March. 

John Alexander has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

He earned his three medals.

 

His documents were sent to the Pension Office in October 1918, perhaps indicating when he was officially declared killed in action.

 

John’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £19-10s, went to his mother, Mrs. Annie I. Williams.  

 

The pension card in the name of Mrs. Isabella Williams (late Jones), 17 Queen’s Road, Bootle, shows that a pension was refused, but often in the case of a missing soldier, a pension was later awarded.

 

In 1939 his mother, 70, was still living at 17 Queens Road with her husband. 

His mother died in the June quarter of 1941 aged 71. 

 

There are two J.A. Jones' listed on the Bootle War Memorial.