Conwy grave of family of Hugh Davies Jones
Hugh Davies Jones (d.1868)
The gravestone of Conwy draper John Jones and his wife Jane includes a memorial inscription to their second son, Hugh Davies Jones.
Hugh initially studied medicine under Conwy doctor Robert Hope Jones. He progressed to the medical school of the University of Dublin, where he received the prize of the junior class in anatomy after his exams in 1851.
He embarked on a military career and was posted to India, where he spent several years as the medical officer of the bodyguard of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. He was later surgeon to the 17th Bengal Cavalry.
His own health began to deteriorate and he was sent home to Britain to recuperate. In early 1868 he returned to India, although he hadn’t fully recovered, according to his friends. He died of “fatty degeneration of the heart” at Barrackpore, India, in September 1868, aged 41.
John had died aged 38 in 1835, when Hugh was a child. Jane continued the family business at 7 High Street, selling clothes and groceries. In 1861 she was living there with her eldest son John (also buried here) and five servants, two of whom worked in the shop. John also worked there. Jane died on Christmas Day 1878, aged 76, and left £2,000 to £3,000 in her will.
Belgian refugees opened a tailor’s shop on the same premises after the First World War.