Memorial to Robert and Roderick Jones

menai_bridge_grave_robert_jonesRobert Jones (d. 1917) and Roderick Jones (d.1944)

The inscription on this family gravestone reveals the loss of two sons in wartime service: one in the First World War and another, decades later, in the Second World War.

The gravestone was erected after the death in 1928 of Owen Jones, of Well Street, Menai Bridge, husband of Elizabeth Ellen Jones. The carved vine leaves also flank the memorial inscription for their son Private Robert Jones of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was killed in action in 1917, aged 18, and is buried at Fins New British Cemetery in France. The inscription includes a verse telling of the family’s “grief for one we loved so well”.

The Second World War was well advanced when the widowed Elizabeth learned that her son Roderick Griffydd Jones had died of wounds in 1944 while serving as a Private with the Royal Pioneer Corps. He had been taking part in the Allied invasion of Italy. He was 31 years old and is buried in Naples War Cemetery.

Elizabeth died in 1967, aged 89.

With thanks to Bridget Geoghegan

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