Frederick William Jones was born in 1891 in Pudsey, Leeds to Lister and Sarah Jones. He was 1 month old at the time of the 1891 census, and was the youngest of the couple’s six children, having two elder sisters Rachel and Lilian, one elder brother, Benjamin and two younger brothers Norman and Glover. Lister was a Joiner and the family lived at 3 Radcliffe Lane, Pudsey. By 1901, the family is complete (Norman and Glover being born in the intervening decade) and the family are living in Pudsey. Lister is still a Joiner, and eldest son Benjamin is now a Weft Boy in a factory. Frederick himself is just 10.
By 1911, the family are still living in the same house, 50 Chapeltown Top at Pudsey, and Frederick at this time is a College Student, within the Teaching profession. All six children still live at home and the entire family except mother Sarah and second daughter Lilian are employed; Lister is still a Joiner, Rachel and Benjamin work in a mill, Norman is a clerk at an iron foundry and Glover is a shop assistant in a grocery, at the age of 16.
The Conisbrough and Denaby 100 Project
Frederick Wm Jones
Sometime between 1911 and his death in 1915, Frederick moved to Denaby Main and became the Assistant Master at Balby Street Council School, Denaby Main.
Frederick enlisted into the 5th Battalion – a territorial battalion – in Wath upon Dearne and was a Corporal in the 5th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment when he was killed on 10th July 1915. At the time of his death, Frederick’s battalion were in trenches by the Yser Canal, where they had been since the evening of the 9th. The trenches were on the left of the British line and had recently been captured from the Germans by the 11th Infantry Brigade near Boesinghe (a village to the north of Ypres). The relief had been completed by 1:30am on the 10th. 5th KOYLI were on the right sector of this line, with the 4th York and Lancaster Regiment in support, and the 4th KOYLI in reserve, in the woods around Elverdinghe Chateau.
The battalion war diaries record the following for the 10th July 1915:
“During the whole of this day the trenches occupied by the Battalion were heavily bombarded by the enemy and the parapets blown in in several places. One machine gune was overturned and buried together with most of the team, one of who was killed and one wounded. The casualties during this period were heavy amounting to 27 other ranks killed – Capt. S Rhodes and 127 other ranks wounded and 2 other ranks missing. About 8pm our guns opened a heavy fire in reply to the hostile guns and after a bombardment lasting about 1 ½ hours succeeded in silencing the enemy’s guns for the time being.”
The appendices to the diaries add more detail to the day’s activities with a report from the Brigade Commander to Infantry HQ:
“About 3am the enemy commenced a heavy bombardment of the trenches occupied by the Battalion under my command and continued the bombardment until about 4pm when the heavy shelling ceased for a time but was renewed with the same intensity about 6pm and continued until 10pm, when the bombardment ceased and the situation became quieter.
During the afternoon about 3pm, I came to the conclusion from the number of casualties that had occurred that the forward line, especially in the centre, was too thickly held and decided to withdraw the Company then in the centre and replace it by three Platoons of the supporting Company. AT the same time also, the Officer commanding the platoons in the forward trench on the Pilken (sp) Road ordered his men to move back into the communicating trench to avoid the heavy shelling as much as possible. The result of this was a certain amount of movement further back and a report got circulated that the enemy had retaken our front trench. This was entirely wrong: none of the trenches held by us were vacated at all and the whole line remained intact during the time we were in occupation of it. On the left flank the enemy attempted to bomb the platoon out of the advanced trench and similar steps were taken to avoid heavy losses; our bombing party and a portion of the platoon holding the trench remained in, and successfully beat off the enemy’s bombers.”
Frederick was one of the 27 killed on that day, and according to a letter written home by his comrades, he was killed along with another Corporal and the Platoon Sergeant when a shell penetrated the parapets.
Frederick is commemorated on the Menin Gate to the missing; given the nature of his death it is most likely that it was impossible to recover and bury his body; it was a sad and gruesome fact that many men killed in this way simply ceased to exist – there was nothing left to bury.
We laid Frederick's tribute near his inscription on the Menin Gate in August 2014.
Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing
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