William Adolphus Jones

   Another name for William was Bill Jones.

  General Notes:

William enlisted in the A.I.F. on the 16th March 1914 and was assigned to "B" Company, of the 20th Battallion, 5th Brigade. His occupation was recorded as "Assayer" and he was aged 23 years and 2 months. Originally he listed his mother as his next of kin, her residence being 9 Eric St, Leichardt, NSW, but this was later changed to his brother H. Walter Jones of Mt Boppy (Gold Mine), Canbelego, NSW.

William was 5 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 126 lbs. His chest measurement was 30-34 inches, he had a fair complexion, brown eyes and light reddish hair. His religion was Methodist.

He embarked on the HMAT Berrima on 25th June 1915 from Sydney. By the 16th August 1915 he was in Gallipoli and on the 18th November he was promoted to Company Quartermaster Sergeant whilst still in Gallipoli. He was admitted to hospital on the 2nd November suffering from Influenza but rejoined his unit on the 4th November.

On the 9th January 1916 William disembarked in Alexandria, Egypt and within 2 weeks was re-admitted to hospital in Cairo suffering from Diptheria. This was a longer stay, he didnt rejoin his unit until the 7th March 1916. Just 11 days later he was heading to France on the Ingoma disembarking in Marseille on the 25th March.

On the 16th August 1916, William was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant whilst serving in France, and by the 16th November he was promoted again to Lieutenant. Around this time he was "Mentioned in Despatches" as follows: "For consistent good work and devotion to duty as as Company Quarter Master Sergeant from 18th November 1915 to 16th August 1916. He is a very good organiser, and during the SOMME offensive he acted as trench quartermaster, organising the cooking and carrying parties so that there was always a good supply of hot tea and stew going to the front line."

He was promptly sent to England on the 30th November to attend "School of Instruction", rejoining his unit in France on the 6th January, 1917. By the 5th March he was on his way back to England from Boulogne, where he was seconded to the 5th Infantry Training Battallion in Rolleston. On the 6th June he was temporarily attached to the 61st Battallion from the 20th Battallion in Wareham, England.

On the 9th July 1917 William departed England again for France and rejoined the 20th Battallion on the 13th July. In December of 1917 he was admitted to hospital at Wimereux with Boils or "Carbuncles" on his neck, eventually being invalided back to England because of this illness. This must have been quite serious as he did not return to his unit in France until 10th April 1918.

William was wounded in action on the 18th May 1918, suffering a gunshot wound and abrasions to his right knee. He was admitted to hospital in Rouen and later repatriated again to England, this time to a hospital at Grantilly Castle, on the 26th May. He returned again to his unit in France on the 16th August 1918. It appears that he left France for England again on the 31st August to attend the School of Topography at Boyton inthe first two weeks of October, and was then Discharged and returned to Australia on the Berrima on the 2nd January 1919.

William was the recipient of the 1914/15 Star, No. 22643, the British War Medal, No. 15614, and the Victory Medal, No. 15420.

From The Alpine Observer 12th January 1917

About Our Soldiers

.. The many friends of Private William Jones, formerly of Harrietville, will be pleased to hear that he was promoted to the position of first lieutenant on the field in France recently, after a very strenuous time with "Fritz" on the Somme front. His brother, Private Wallace H. Jones is in England recovering from wounds recieved at Pozieres. He is making good progress towards recovery...
__________________________________________________________________________

We know little about his immediate postwar years, but on 1 October 1928 William married Bridget See in Grafton, New South Wales and they had two children in the next few years. This new-found domesticity notwithstanding, his commitment to serving his country must have remained strong, because a decade later, the onset of the Second World War saw him enlist once again on 27 November 1940. He was almost 43 years old and was working in a Dunlop service department. Bridget was recorded as his next of kin, and they were living at 18 Shaw Avenue in Earlwood, Sydney. William was allocated the service number N100866 and assigned to the 20th Garrison Battalion. Garrison Battalions, often comprising older enlistees like William, were assigned homeland security tasks such as guarding major infrastructure assets and POWs. William spent his entire service in the 20th at Newcastle in New South Wales. In June 1942 he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and in September to Staff Sergeant. He was discharged from the army on 19 December 1945 as a part of the general demobilisation after the war's end.

William and his brother Frederick were named Executors of their mother's Will after her death in 1932 according to a Legal Notice published in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 26th September 1932, page 2.

In November of 1966 William signed a Statutory Declaration regarding the loss of his Certificates of Discharge with respect to his WW1 and WW2 army service. In this document he states that he lived at 18 Shaw Avenue, Earlwood for about 20 years prior to 1952 and then in Port Macquarie.

William died in 1983 aged 91 and is buried with his wife Bridget in the Port Macquarie cemetery.

Interestingly although his Birth register entry records his birthdate as 22 January, his family believe it was 27 January. This latter date was also recorded as his D.O.B. on his WW2 Service record. Perhaps it truly was 27 January and the Registrar misheard "Twenty seventh" as "Twenty second"!

  Noted events in his life were:

• He had a residence from 1932 to 1952 in 18 Shaw Ave, Earlwood, , New South Wales, Australia.

• He had a residence in 1966 in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.

• He worked as a Clerk in 1932.

William married Bridget Elizabeth See, daughter of John Henry See and Jane Williams, on 1 Oct 1928 in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. (Bridget Elizabeth See was born on 13 Mar 1904 in Bingara, New South Wales, Australia, died on 30 Dec 1994 in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia and was buried in Jan 1995 in RC Cemetery, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.)