john Jones will 1915

[wilcoxon]

This was copied into a family bible. can anyone find him from the army numbers
I am not sure that John died in the war, he was born at Flint about 1886, and was aged 25 , living in Brymbo near Wrexham in 1911.  Thomas Alfred Jones was the eldest son b c 1906

John Jones will
Home server in the German war leaves a wife and four children to serve his country this is my will. I intend to leave all my belongings to Beatrice my wife while she is in my name and then all to my children my watch is for my oldest son and my fathers watch is to be left to Percy Jones if he looks after himself he is not to get it till he is old enough signed Sergt John Jones No 638  58th RWF  14/3/1915

[Stephen Nulty]

His Medal Index Card shows numbers 638 and also 53857 with the RWF. British War Medal and Victory Medal, but no Star so he didn't go overseas prior to 1916.

[wilcoxon]

Thanks .
Would there be any service records I can find using these details ?

[Stephen Nulty]

Sorry, his papers don't appear to have survived

[wilcoxon]

Thanks for your help .

[ainslie]

QUOTE: Sergt John Jones No 638  58th RWF 

'58th' looks as if it should be a battalion number, but RWF seems only to have got up to 26th (Service) Battalion.
5th or 1/5th were TF, based at Flint.  2/5th formed at Wrexham in 1914.  3/5th  was formed in March 1915 at Flint and in 1916 became a Reserve battalion.  8th was a Service battalion formed at Wrexham.
Odd.
A

[Gwil]

I'm going to complicate this a bit.

My research shows John Price Jones 638/53857 was from Cyttir, Llangoed, Anglesey. He served overseas with the 1st Battalion from early September 1916. Possibly had a  brother William Jones was in the Labour Corps Pte 257742(no overseas service)

Many 2nd line Territorial Force men were sent over after the Somme had started in earnest and, because they were then posted to 'Regular' Battalions, they were given a 'Regular' number. RWF 5xxxx series are littered with them.

Re the 638 number. It would make sense, given the Anglesey connection, for this to be a 6th Battalion number (Carnarvon & Anglesey) but this number was allocated to Richard Richards of Tremadoc (in June 1909. Service papers extant)

638 in 5th Bn (Flintshire) would have enlisted around April 1909.

6638 RWF was also a John P Jones. I have no further details yet on him other than he didn't go overseas till after 1/1/1916. This number in the Regulars would have enlisted 1901. In 4th Battalion would have enlisted 1910 and in Special Reserve (most likely) in June/July 1915. It would be far too high a number for the other 3 TF unots (5th, 6th and 7th) in March 1915 which is when the will was signed.

Can you link your man to Anglesey?

What wartime address have you got for him?

Gwil

[wilcoxon]

There is no link to Anglesey.

I have looked again at the entry, the writing is very disjointed  and it may be 5 Btt

In 1911  John  is  aged 25 living at 1 Boncyn, Brymbo, near Wrexham and is a collier.
They stayed in that area,
His father Thomas is a steel smelter and has also moved to Brymbo from Flint.

There was a brother Edwin Thomas Jones   b c 1888 also born Flint.

[Gwil]

The 53857 number is quite near that of my grandfathers (also an Anglesey man and who served with 1st Bn early 1916 onwards). In my research into him I had obtained a chunk of the actual Medal Roll (as opposed to the Medal Card) covering his number. I have looked up that Roll now and I see that the middle number of the John P Jones '638' number has been overtyped. It look like 3 and 5 and it's hard to say which it should be. But once again we are stumped with it being a 6th Bn number as 658 is Evan Hughes of 1 Smith St, Portmadoc (extant Service papers)

Looks to be two different men though with some Admin/Typo problems on the 6th Bn side of things. We're not helped by the age old Welsh genealogical problem of 'which John Jones'  :-)
I can account for a considerable amout of RWF ones but not, unfortunately, the one in your Will.

Can't find Edwin T Jones being a RWF man. Plenty of plain Edwin Jones though.