Name
Albert Henry Jones
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
134107
Royal Engineers
2nd Field Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I. G. 17.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor,
John Dickinson Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley,
Hemel Hempstead Town memorial
Pre War
Albert Henry Jones was born in 1882 in Camden Town, London, the son of William and Eliza Jones and one of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 52 Arundel Square, Islington. His father was listed as a GPO Pensioner, but four of his older siblings were in employment. In 1901 the family were living at 42 Camden Road, Camden Town, St Pancras and Albert was working as a Cabinet Maker. His father was again listed as a GPO Pensioner, aged 55 but he died in 1906.
Albert moved to Hemel Hempstead after the 1901 Census and started work at John Dickinson & Co. Ltd at Apsley Mills. Whilst working there he met and married Agnes Rose Barford on 23 December 1905 at Boxmoor, Herts and on the 1911 Census he was living with his wife and children, Leslie and Margery, and two of his wife's sisters who were boarding with them, at 1 Maynards Cottages, Hemel Hempstead. At that time he was working as a Cabinet Maker.
They later lived at 14 Cotterells, Albion Hill, Hemel Hempstead and had another son, Alfred in 1913. He was working at John Dickinson & Co, paper manufacturers at Apsley Mills, on enlistment.
Wartime Service
Albert enlisted in Watford in November 1915 and and served as a Sapper with the 2nd Field Company, Royal Engineers. His skill as a carpenter/cabinet maker would have been useful in the Royal Engineers as they were engaged in trench repair, boarding, digging sumps and sinking wells, amongst other tasks. Although not directly in the firing line, they would often be in or near the Front Line and Support Trenches and exposed to the same risk of shelling and sniper fire as other troops.
Although the circumstances of his death are not known, Albert was killed in action on 6 October 1916 whilst engaged on work near the Front Line and is buried at the Philosphe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £4 8s 6d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 3d for herself and her children. She remarried on 11.12.1917 to Thomas Meehan and they received a remarriage gratuity of £34 5s.
(N.B. Albert & Agnes's son Alfred William Jones was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942 in WW2 but survived the war and died, aged 90 in 2004,)
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
