The AIF Project

William Francis JONES

Regimental number2726
Place of birthNewton, Sydney, New South Wales
SchoolChristian Brothers (Catholic), East St Kilda, Victoria
Other trainingAthlete
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Next of kinFather, W Jones, 17 Eliza Road, Windsor, Melbourne, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed as a Corporal and Sergeant in the A.M.F. for four years.
Enlistment date19 July 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll15 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name21st Battalion, 6th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/38/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board RMS Moldavia on 5 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll7th Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Military Medal (Awarded)


Skilland courage while in temporary command of platoon, materially assisting successful holding of front line.
Recommendation date: 29 September 1917

Other details from Roll of Honour CircularCalled by his men at the Front the Musical Sergeant. (Mother)
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death22.2
Age at death from cemetery records22
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
50
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Annie JONES, Ontario Street, Caulfield, Victoria. Native of Newtown, New South Wales
Medals

Military Medal

'Near POLYGON de ZONNEBEKE, east of YPRES during the operations of 20/22nd September 1917, Sgt. JONES took command of his platoon when the Platoon Officer was wounded and handled the platoon with skill and courage. His good work materially assisted the successful holding of the front line.'

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