In memory of Thomas Owen Jones
Thomas Owen Jones was born in Caernarfon on 22 April 1893. He was the eldest son of Thomas and Ann Jones. His father, born in Aberystwyth, was a mariner. His mother was born in Caernarfon.
When the 1901 census was taken, Thomas junior had a sister and two brothers, all born in Aberystwyth. One of them, Stanley Peter Jones, died in 1916 of illness. The other served with the Cardigan Battery in Egypt during the First World War.
By then the parents were living at 8 Glanrafon Terrace, in the Trefechan area of Aberystwyth. Thomas Owen Jones lived at Hazel House, Portland Road, Aberystwyth, with his wife Margaret and their young child.
As a Royal Navy reservist, Thomas was called up as soon as war broke out in 1914. Serving on HMS Jupiter, Thomas helped the effort to keep the passage to Archangel, in the Arctic Circle, open to shipping in winter 1915 so that the Russian army’s supplies would not be disrupted by sea ice. Seamen involved in that operation were later awarded the Russian Medal for Zeal by Tzar Nicholas II.
Later he was transferred to a minesweeper called HMPMS Nepaulin. This ship was built as a passenger paddle steamer in 1892 and used by the Glasgow & South Western Railway on routes in and near the river Clyde. It was requisitioned for the Royal Navy in 1915. Its new crew had the task of searching for, and then destroying, enemy mines.
On 20 April 1917 Thomas died after the ship was sunk by a mine off the Belgian coast. He was 23 years old. His body was never found. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and on the war memorials in Aberystwyth and Caernarfon.
With thanks to Adrian Hughes and Steven John
Back to listing page (Aberystwyth war memorial)
Back to listing page (Caernarfon war memorial)
