Henry James Jones, Private, 7th Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
Henry Jones was born in about 1886. In 1891 he is living in Headland, Dilwyn with Charles and Charlotte Bywaters who are described in this census as his father and mother. The latter are also parents to two daughters, Naomi and Rose Bywaters. Charles Bywaters is described as an agricultural labourer. Anthony Bevan, a lodger who is also employed as an agricultural labourer is living with them in a dwelling with 4 or less rooms (including kitchen)
In the 1901 census, Henry James is working as a “servant” and “agricultural labourer on farm”. The farm is Tibhall Farm in the parish of Dilwyn which is still a working farm today. Henry Jones’s employer is Charles Morgan who is a farmer on own account, married with 9 children all under the ages of 12.
The 1911 census states that Henry Jones is now back residing at Headland, Dilwyn with Charles Bywaters who, the census now informs us, is Henry Jones's stepfather, the logical inference being that Charlotte Bywaters must be Henry James’s mother. Henry Jones and his stepfather are both “general labourers on farm”.
Headland, Dilwyn is in close proximity to Tibhall Farm mentioned in the 1901 census, so it is possible that Henry Jones is still employed at the same farm that he was working on in 1901.
There appears to be no record of who Henry James’s father was. Charlotte Bywaters’s maiden name was Charlotte Jones. She was the daughter of John Jones. She had married Charles Bywaters in 1888, more than two years after Henry Jones had been born. On 15th November 1885, Henry Jones had been baptised. Only his mother, Charlotte Jones, is recorded as a parent and there appears to be no record of Charlotte Jones’s marriage to another Jones. So, it is possible that Henry Jones was born out of wedlock as he went by his mother’s maiden name.
Along with his mother and stepfather, there is a son and daughter of Charles and Charlotte Bywaters, a grandson, George Bywaters and a grand-daughter Mary Eleanor Jones (Henry James’s daughter), aged 4 who are all living at Headland. Henry Jones is, by 1911, a widower.
Sometime between 1913/1914, Henry Jones married Dorothy Mary Newtown. In 1914, she gave birth to a son, William Charles Jones. In January 1916, another son, Henry James was born.
In 1915, Henry Jones enlisted in the 7th Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (K.S.L.I.).
The 7th K.S.L.I. was a part of Kitchener’s First Army attached to 76th Brigade (3rd Division). They proceeded to Boulogne, France in September 1915 and concentrated in the area of Nieppe.
In 1916 the battalion was transferred to 8th Brigade, 25th Division. And then took part in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14th-17th July).
“At 3.30 a.m. on 14 July 1916 7/KLSI took part in the assault on Bazentine Ridge on the Somme. The objective was the German Front Line running through Bazentine le Grand some 1,500 yards distant. 7/KLSI was on on the extreme right of the attack. This was the second phase of the Somme battle using improved tactics from the largely failed attacks employed on 1 July that had resulted in 57,470 casualties of whom 19,240 were killed. The assault was intended to expand the limited gains that were made on that day. The assault was proceeded by a brief artillery bombardment in darkness to gain surprise on the enemy. 7/KLSI ran into uncut German barbed wire 600 yards from the German Front Line that completely stalled the attack. The remnants of 7/KLSI fell back to a sunken road having suffered considerable losses from enemy fire. At 11 a.m. the remains of 7/KLSI commanded by the remaining senior officer, Captain William L. Lloyd attacked again, this time assisted by bombing parties. They got through the wire and attacked the German Front Line trench. Lieutenant-Colonel Raymond Ewings Negus DSO was rescued after having been taken prisoner whilst lying wounded in the wire earlier that morning. The six remaining officers and about 135 survivors of 7/KLSI consolidated the captured trench and beat off five German counter attacks until relieved on 20 July.” (1)
Above photo: Battle of Bazentin Ridge (2)
Former apprentice tailor and Kitchener volunteer, Private 13621 William Wilkes MM, 7/KLSI, later wrote of his experiences of that day in a memoir;
‘I was in the second wave I often think my luck was in for when the guns opened out they dropped the barrage short and a lot of the first wave caught it and then to make things worse the wire was 4 to 6 yards deep and had not been cut at all. Our chaps were just wiped out those of us that managed to get back to a sunken road 150 to 200 yards had to try and dig ourselves in which is quite an ordeal under heavy machine gun fire with a trenching tool that appear to be more like a tooth pick both men on my right and left were killed, we lay there hardly able to move till 10 o’clock then we heard that the flanks had broken through and jerry had gone back, all was very quiet now after all the din an occasional rifle shot or machine gun burst a few shells going over to the rear we went forward and got into the German trench and then did a very foolish thing. I have in times past when we have some new drab rookies we used to call them the first thing they seemed to want to do was to stick their heads up over the parapet to see where jerry was, I said keep your ‘loaf' down and that’s just what I did have a quick look but jerry was doing the same and although he was not a very good shot he caught me in my left shoulder the collar bone glancing it down and it came out just under my shoulder blade. It felt as if someone had given me a tremendous wallop on my back but fortunately it missed any vital spot.” (3)
“Eight officers and 163 other ranks had been killed and seven officers and 294 other ranks wounded. The original 7/KLSI battalion of Kitchener volunteers had been devastated in its first major attack having landed less than 12 months previously.” (4)
Above photo: 7th Battalion, K.S.L.I. parading at Ancre (IWM)
“The Battle of Ancre (November 1916) was the final push against the most obstinate German defences on either side of the river Ancre.” (5)
“At 5.45 a.m. on 13 November 1916 7/KLSI again attacked on the Somme in what was to be the last phase of the Somme Campaign that year. 7/KLSI had been rebuilt with new drags to a strength of 28 officers and 690 other ranks. The objective of the attack was the heavily fortified village of Serre that had stopped the British assault on 1 July 1916. A two day artillery bombardment on the German defences preceded the attack. 7/KLSI was supporting the advance of 1/Royal Scots Fusiliers but when the advance commenced all direction was lost and the supporting tanks had to withdraw. The ground was a deep muddy quagmire. Ration parties would take four hours to cover 1,000 yards. On the morning of the attack it was initially pitch black and there was a continuing ground fog.
Above photo: British cavalry patrolling, Ancre, 1917 (Wikipedia)
Although the objective of Serre was not taken the battalion was able to secure the eastern slopes of the Thiepval Ridge due the success of the 51 Highland Division in capturing Beaumont Hamel to the south. 225 officers and other ranks were killed, wounded or reported missing in the attack.” (6)
“In April, 1917, the 7th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry were deployed to Arras. The concept of the battle of Arras was essentially one of diverting the German Army away from reinforcing the planned French breakout offensive at Chemin des Dames on the River Aisne. The British Army was to attack the Hindenburg Line, a prepared defensive line to which the German Army had withdrawn earlier that year. The Hindenburg Line was intended to improve its defensive position and conserve manpower by reducing the length of the German Front Line. The British plan was to utilise artillery to overwhelm the German defences and with the support of tanks capture the key locations of Vimy Ridge and Monchy-le-Preux Hill. From then the intention was to break out across the River Scarpe. (7)
On the first day of the battle (9th April), the 7th K.S.L.I. advance forward is described in a war diary
“9th April 1917 The assaulting brigade, 76th Brigade had also captured its objective which was the village of Tolloy Les Mafflaines and The Harp.
The 8th Brigade with this battalion on the right and the 7th K.S.L.I. on the front line was allotted the task of passing through the 9th Brigade and capturing Feuchy Line which was called The Brown Line, an advance of about three thousand yards.
The advance started most successfully with quite a number of prisoners taken in the various trenches which were passed over but, later, when they came up within about 600 yards of The Brown Line, the attacking troops were caught by heavy enfilade machine gun fire from the Feuchy Chapel, a strong point to the north, making further advance impossible.
This was due to the fact that the Brigade on our left had failed to take the point. Two battalions of the 76th Brigade were also sent up but failed.
The Battalion dug during the night about 600 yards west of Brown Line and orders were given for a further attack the following day.” (8)
“At 8.50 a.m. on 9 April (the day that Henry Jones was killed) 7/KLSI advanced in a heavy snow storm and discovered the German second line village of Tilloy had not yet been cleared of the enemy. A Company led by Captain Arthur Malins Thursfield MC defeated parties of Germans on the northern flank of Tilloy capturing 3 officers and 90 men. The hamlet of Bois des Boeufs was also captured with a further 36 prisoners being captured.
However the advance to the German third line was stopped at 2.20 p.m. by German fire on the flanks and thick belts of barbed wire. 7/KLSI had made an advance of over 5,000 yards and numerous guns and prisoners. 166 casualties including 23 killed were suffered by 7/KLSI. (9)
“The Battalion proceeded to dig in, in four lines starting at about 00.30 hours: the whole movement was carried out without a single casualty. All the attacking troops reaching their positions for the final assault about 50 yards in front of the German wire without the enemy being aware of their presence.
At 03.25 hours our guns started the intense bombardment and at 03.30 hours the assault was launched and the guns lifted to the German second line.
By 04.00 hours it was getting quite light and we could see our aeroplanes which flew above, signalling to the artillery.
What actually happened in the attack made by the 8th Brigade was that the East Yorks. and K.S.L.I. ,also the R.S.F. failed to get into the German trenches at all owing to the very strong wire put out by the Germans. This had been put out in two very strong separate lines and the Artillery had been unable to see this. The result was that all three battalions suffered very heavy casualties, particularly the East Yorks and K.S.L.I. who were badly cut up”. (10)
Above photo: British troops leaving the trenches Arras, 9th April 1917 – the day that Henry Jones was killed in action (11)
“2/Lt Arthur Malins Thursfield MC, 7/KLSI who had been commissioned from the ranks, wrote in a letter dated 17 April 1917;
“I have just come out of a big battle clear. We were in action for 6 days + the great honour was given to me to lead over the top + be directIng flank of the Brigade. The men did magnificently. We captured any amount of prisoners, big and small guns and goodness knows what. The only fly in the ointment is the way one misses the dear good fellows that went under in the show. My Coy. (company)) went 5 miles through the boches (sic) from the word go. It beat cock fighting.” (10)
Above photo: The Battle of Arras (The Tank Museum)
Henry Jones was killed in action on the first day of the assault, 9th April 1917, aged 32.
Above photo: Troops of the 7th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment, returning from the trenches (IWM)
In a document entitled “Burial Return – Concentration of Graves Exhumation and Burials”, dated 7th October 1921, it states, concerning Henry John James’s body - “No remains found”.
Henry Jones is commemorated at The Arras Memorial, Bay 7.
Above photo: Bay 7, The Arras Memorial (IWM)
“The cemetery contains over 2,650 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 10 of which are unidentified. The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. (CWGC)
Also to note, George James, another soldier who is commemorated on The Pembridge War Memorial, was not only in the same regiment as Henry Jones but, also, in the same battalion. George James had spent most of his life in Puddleston some distance from Dilwyn so it is doubtful whether George James and Henry Jones had come across each other before the war. But it is quite possible that behind the front lines or even in the trenches word might have reached one or the other that they had both had lived within relative proximity to one another which might have given them a reason to seek each other out and spend time with each other when they were recuperating behind the front lines.
After the war, Dorothy May Jones with her step-daughter, Eleanor Mary and her two sons William Charles and James Henry Jones were living at York Hill, Ledbury. She had been awarded a pension for her and the three children of 26s 3d commencing on 5th November 1917.
Rory MacColl
Sources
1/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
2/ https://www.facebook.com/DevonDorsetAssociation/photos/a.1766341410313319/
3/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
4/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
5/ https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/story/43804
6/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
7/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
8/ https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=6449
9/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
10/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf
11/ The Times History of War Vol XIV
10/ https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7%EF%80%A2KLSI-1914-1918.pdf