Researching william henry jones

[Robj63]

I am trying to gather as much knowledge as possible regarding my grandfather who served with the RWF in world war 1, anything new that I can find out would be great.
I appreciate this wont be easy due to the common surname- below is all the info I know regarding my grandfather

Name - William Henry Jones
Dob - 29th May 1891
Died - 25th August 1937
Place of Birth - Dinas, Rhondda

I believe he was living in camarthen when he enlisted in Jan 6th 1915


He was married when he joined

This is all the info I have, I hope its enough to lead me to something new with your help

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance
Rob

[Baconwallah]

You beat me to it, Rob. I had just moved your other post from the Introductory section when this thread appeared.

As you say, the name is not uncommon. Member Gwilwil may be able to link the birth date etc to an army number, which will help.

My own database of the 1st Bn RWF has one possible candidate:

Jones, William Henry, 17004 Pte
Landed 12/05/1915. Demob 04/03/1919.

The landing date would fit the enlistment date. If (and only if) this was your grandfather, he served with the 1st Bn throughout the war without being wounded.

But the Medal Index Cards list five men named William Henry Jones and 64 named William H....

John

[Robj63]

You beat me to it, Rob. I had just moved your other post from the Introductory section when this thread appeared.

As you say, the name is not uncommon. Member Gwilwil may be able to link the birth date etc to an army number, which will help.

My own database of the 1st Bn RWF has one possible candidate:

Jones, William Henry, 17004 Pte
Landed 12/05/1915. Demob 04/03/1919.

The landing date would fit the enlistment date. If (and only if) this was your grandfather, he served with the 1st Bn throughout the war without being wounded.

John

Thanks for the quick reply, id love to think that is him

[Robj63]

You beat me to it, Rob. I had just moved your other post from the Introductory section when this thread appeared.

As you say, the name is not uncommon. Member Gwilwil may be able to link the birth date etc to an army number, which will help.

My own database of the 1st Bn RWF has one possible candidate:

Jones, William Henry, 17004 Pte
Landed 12/05/1915. Demob 04/03/1919.

The landing date would fit the enlistment date. If (and only if) this was your grandfather, he served with the 1st Bn throughout the war without being wounded.

But the Medal Index Cards list five men named William Henry Jones and 64 named William H....

John

cheers john ,
obvious question but how do i contact gwilwil to see if he can help?

[Baconwallah]

Not to worry, Rob. Gwilwil is a frequent contributor to the Forum Research section and will post an answer if he can find anything useful in his own files.

John

[Robj63]

Not to worry, Rob. Gwilwil is a frequent contributor to the Forum Research section and will post an answer if he can find anything useful in his own files.

John

ok thats great, thanks for your help john,

[Hywyn]

Re 17004 William Henry Jones. In 1918 he lived at 2 Edwardsville, Treharris. Another few possibles from 'down there' (everywhere south of Dolgellau is 'the South' :-) ) are 14759 William Henry Jones, 19 Edward St,Mardy: 15033 William Henry Jones, 27 Pergwm Street, Trealaw: 20196 William H Jones, 1 Maldwyn Terrace, Cwm Parc: 93669 William H Jones, Gelli, Pentre. I haven't seen any from Camarthen(shire)

As John points out there are at least 69 possibilties and it may be possible to narrow it down (those killed etc) but with this many I don't think it's a route worth going down at the moment as inevitably there will be too may possibles left at the end. Eliminating by reason of date enlisted is fraught with danger as he may have enlisted in another unit and transferred in.

Possibly the best route then is to examine what is known/can be found out. I appreciate you have stated that you have provided all the info you have but just to cover the points.

You are pretty certain that he was RWF and of the enlistment date. What is that info based on.

Any known addresses in 1918/19 and have you pinned him down in the 1911 or 1901 Census?

Have you got or got access to his medals? The number and Regiment will be on the rim.

Was he known to have served after 1920?

Any children born during his time in service. Their birth certificate may provide his number or at least his Regiment/unit.

Hywyn

[Robj63]

Re 17004 William Henry Jones. In 1918 he lived at 2 Edwardsville, Treharris. Another few possibles from 'down there' (everywhere south of Dolgellau is 'the South' :-) ) are 14759 William Henry Jones, 19 Edward St,Mardy: 15033 William Henry Jones, 27 Pergwm Street, Trealaw: 20196 William H Jones, 1 Maldwyn Terrace, Cwm Parc: 93669 William H Jones, Gelli, Pentre. I haven't seen any from Camarthen(shire)

As John points out there are at least 69 possibilties and it may be possible to narrow it down (those killed etc) but with this many I don't think it's a route worth going down at the moment as inevitably there will be too may possibles left at the end. Eliminating by reason of date enlisted is fraught with danger as he may have enlisted in another unit and transferred in.

Possibly the best route then is to examine what is known/can be found out. I appreciate you have stated that you have provided all the info you have but just to cover the points.

You are pretty certain that he was RWF and of the enlistment date. What is that info based on.

Any known addresses in 1918/19 and have you pinned him down in the 1911 or 1901 Census?

Have you got or got access to his medals? The number and Regiment will be on the rim.

Was he known to have served after 1920?

Any children born during his time in service. Their birth certificate may provide his number or at least his Regiment/unit.

Hywyn

Appreciate all the info, the enlisted date was taken from a family bible, ill take a look at the census you mentioned and take it from there , really appreciate all the help and ill try and match what i find with the info youve provided
cheers
Rob

[Hywyn]

OK Rob. Let us know if you find any addresses.

Re my point about eliminating by date of enlisment. It depends on your assessment of the entry and how it's worded. Was the entry contemporaneous do you think or made years later and did it actually say enlisted in Royal Welsh Fusiliers or is there another entry that says he served in RWF.

We can eliminate quite a lot if this was RWF enlistment at that date but if he went initially to the Welch Regiment or the South Wales Borderers etc then it will be a bit harder. Anything there that says he served overseas?

[Robj63]

OK Rob. Let us know if you find any addresses.

Re my point about eliminating by date of enlisment. It depends on your assessment of the entry and how it's worded. Was the entry contemporaneous do you think or made years later and did it actually say enlisted in Royal Welsh Fusiliers or is there another entry that says he served in RWF.

We can eliminate quite a lot if this was RWF enlistment at that date but if he went initially to the Welch Regiment or the South Wales Borderers etc then it will be a bit harder. Anything there that says he served overseas?

Youve given me something to work on now, my next step is to try and find his address in the 1911 census and hopefully it will match one of the addresses you mentioned earlier , or maybe try electoral registers ( not sure how far back they go)
again thanks
Rob