From towers to trenches, we remember Thomas Jones
A few miles south east of Arras in northern France you can find the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery and the impressive memorial designed by J.R Truelove with Sculpture by Ernest Gillick. The memorial with its concave centre bears the names of 9,000 men who fell in the period from 18th August to the Armistice and who have no known grave. The names surround a relief of St George and the Dragon which is placed behind the stone of remembrance. The 70 feet high stone pylons mark the ends of the concave centre and stretch up into the heavens. On either side of the pylons are covered colonnades which also contain names of the missing.
The name Thomas Jones is listed 9 times on the panels, among the Tom’s listed is a young 18 year old soldier from the 8th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment . The memorial registrar provides the following information about young Tom. “JONES, Pte. Thomas 45609. 8th Bn. Royal Berkshire Regt. 4th Sept., 1918. Age 18. Son of George and Eliza Jones, of Duck Lake, Maids Moreton, Buckingham.”
Tom was born towards the end of the 1899 probably at number 16 Duck Lake. He had two older brothers Herbert and Arthur and two older sisters Alice and Dorothy. In c1904 his baby sister Minnie was born. Tom joined his older brother Arthur and rang the bells of St Edmunds.
Tom enlisted at Bletchley and originally served under the regimental number 31196 in the Oxford and Bucks Light Inf. Sometime before his death he had transferred to the Princess Charlotte of Wales (Royal Berkshire) Regiment and was given the regimental number of 45609. He is likely to have lost his life in the “Advance to Victory” in Artois.
Information sources
Census records for 1911, 1901, 1891