Arthur Jones





VAD Hospital, High Wycombe (picture from SWOP website)

Arthur Jones grave in High Wycombe Cemetery





Arthur Jones 1884 - 1915

I am Arthur Jones and I was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire on 17th September 1884. I was baptised there on 26th October 1884 at St Paul’s church. My parents were Richard & Sarah Jane who were both born in Wales. So how did I come to be buried in High Wycombe?

By 1891 my family were living at Queen Mary Street, Linthorpe, but that's still Middlesbrough, and my father was working as an iron worker/puddler. I was the middle child. There was my sister Susannah who was ten years older then me, then my brother Matthew who was seven years older, then Caroline, four years older than me, then me, and then my younger brother Frederick and the baby of the family little Sarah.

In 1906 I married Mary Elizabeth Winship West in the Hartlepool district of Durham. By 1911 we had set up home at 2, Abbotsford Road, West Hartlepool. I was 26rs old by then and was employed as a bricklayer/moulder for a local blast furnace. We had had two children by this time but only our little son Charles Richard had survived.

Arthur Jones is a very common name and, one hundred years on, I thought it unlikely that anyone would find me here in High Wycombe. But Fortunately my WW1 Service Records are still available and provide a lot of details. I attested on 11 January 1915 aged 30yrs 4mths. I joined the 14th (Service) Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry which was formed at Newcastle in September 1914 as part of the Third New Army (K3). They moved to Aylesbury to join the 64th Brigade of the 21st Division. In October 1914 they moved to Halton Park and then to High Wycombe which is how I came to be here.

But before the Battalion moved back to Halton Park I must have become ill, I was apparently suffering from pneumonia, and I was taken to the V.A.D Hospital in High Wycombe. I remained there for seven days and was placed on the danger list. My wife was sent for and she was with me before I died and present at my death. Poor Mary. I had suffered three previous attacks of pneumonia before I enlisted and no doubt she had hoped and prayed that I would survive this one, but it was not to be.

So Mary, now a widow, was awarded a War Pension to help bring up our three children. My youngest son I never got to meet as he was born on 9th August 1915, six and half months after my death.

I am also remembered on the West Hartlepool War Memorial.



Researched by Ruth Bowler, Flackwell Local Area History Group

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