The 1911 census (taken on 2 April) states that he was 13.  That fact, together with his age at death, imply that he was born between 15 May 1897 and 2 April 1898.  Indeed, his birth was registered between April and June 1897, so it would seem likely that he was born in late May or June 1897, meaning he was nearly 20 when he died.

 

He enlisted as a Rifleman in the Reserve Battalion on 3 September 1914, just a month after the war started.  Although his army record is one of the few to have survived enemy action in the Second World War it is badly damaged.  His date of birth is not extant but it states his ‘alleged age’ on enlistment as 18 years 1 month.  If that were the case he would have been born in July or August 1896, so it is clear that it is another case of a lad saying he was older than he actually was so that he could enlist. 

 

He stood 5’ 3” and was of slight build (his chest measured 34” when fully expanded).  He was a Baptist.  His overall character was ‘Good’; indeed he was awarded a Good Conduct Badge on 29 December 1916, but he was not perfect.  His offence sheet states that at Bedford on 23 August 1915, he was ‘absent from 6.30am parade’ and his punishment was two days confined to barracks, 28 August 1915.

 

On 9 December 1914 he had signed an agreement to serve overseas as a Territorial and in 1916 was posted to the 3rd/1st Monmouthshire Regiment on 27 March and then to the 1st/1st Monmouthshire Regiment on 21 April, embarking the same day at Southampton and disembarking at Rouen the following day.  He joined his battalion in the field on 4 May.

 

A year later, on 13 May 1917, he suffered gun-shot wounds to his chest, shell wounds to his left leg and was admitted to a Casualty Clearing Station.  A telegraph was sent to his family stating ‘dangerously wounded’, and the following day his family were informed of his death.  They requested the following epitaph on his grave at Choque: ‘For ever with the Lord; Amen so let it be; Thy will be done.’.

 

Alfred had served 1 year 231 days at home and 1 year 23 days with the British Expeditionary Force in France, totaling 2 years 254 days.

 

His army record gives details (as at 9 June 1919) of his next of kin (his father John Jones) and his siblings:

·       William Thomas Jones (33), serving with His Majesty’s Forces in France

·       Mary Hilda Abigail Williams (28) of Corner House, Nash, Nr Newport

·       Elizabeth Agnes Paine (27) of Deep Lake House, Redwick, Nr Newport

·       Wilfred Henry Matthias Jones (24) of 18 Courtybella Terrace Newport

·       Frank Douglas Jones (20) in the 3rd Western Hospital, Newport

 

Alfred’s mother, Mary, had died by 1917. 

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Who was that Mary, and will it tell us why Alfred’s War Plaque was found in Redwick?

 

The 1901 census shows the family (including our Alfred) living in Daniel Street, Newport (the street no longer exists, but was not far from Courtybella Terrace).  John’s wife was then Mary, aged 36, who had been born in Redwick. 

 

Further research revealed Alfred’s mother to be Mary Matthias, the sixth of seven children of William and Mary Matthias (née Williams) of Cock Street House, Redwick, who had married John Jones in the summer of 1886.  One of her sons had her maiden name as his third Christian name.

 

Alfred’s father, John Jones, was the eldest of nine surviving children of Thomas Jones of Newport and Mary (probably née Llewellyn) of Bedwellty.  John, born in Nash in 1863/64, became a railway goods guard.  The 1911 census shows that he had been married to Amelia (née Powell) for three years, so Alfred’s mother Mary must have died between 1901 and 1908.  There are at least three possibilities (one in 1905 and two in 1907) and it is still to be verified which is correct:

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Will Alfred’s siblings tell us why the War Plaque was found in Redwick?

 

Going backwards in time is unlikely to tell us why the plaque was found in Redwick.  Instead we need to come forward and look at Alfred’s siblings, as listed on his army record.

 

1.  William Thomas - so far little more has been discovered about him.  Alfred’s army records and William’s gravestone imply that he was born between 1885 and 1887. 

 

2.  Wilfred Henry Matthias had been a clerk in civilian life, joined the Army in 1912, and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on 19/3/1918 and then to the newly created RAF on 1/4/1918. 

On 12 Oct 1925, aged 30, he married Eva Mary Morgan, spinster, (aged 22) at St Mark, Newport.

 

3.  Frank Douglas was a butcher and enlisted on 13/10/1916 (aged 17 years 4 months) and served as a Private in the Denbighshire Yeomanry, the 3rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the 15th Battalion, Loyal North Lancs Regiment. He embarked 2/6/1918.  A month later, on 19 July, he was in a field ambulance with scabies.  Three months later he had acute appendicitis and was in a field hospital.  He was shipped back to England, and was in Woking Hospital 10/11/1918 – 5/3/1919 with ‘old  appendicitis’ and ‘dirty discharging wound’.  He was transferred to the Special Surgical Military Hospital, Newport, on 14/3/1919, where he died on 19/7/1919.  As he had effectively died in service, he was given a war grave and he has one of the 277 war graves scattered throughout Newport Cemetery.  Being a Baptist, his grave was in the non-conformist section of the cemetery.  However, it was not the more common style of war grave but a small rectangular stone on a civilian grave.  The civilian gravestone was possibly erected for him by his elder brother William, who is himself later commemorated on the same gravestone, having died in 1944 at The Poplars, Redwick – the very house where the Plaque was found.

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