T JONES

Welsh Regiment, 14th Battalion, ‘B’ Company
Service No: 18915
Born: 1897, Treharris, Glamorgan
Died: 13 February 1918, France | Aged 21
Buried at Lillers Communal Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France (Grave V. E. 32)

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William Thomas Jones was born in 1897 in Treharris, Glamorgan, the eldest son of William and Elizabeth Jones. He grew up with his siblings John, Walter, and Beatrice, in a family shaped by the coal mining industry that dominated the South Wales Valleys.

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By 1911, the Jones family were living at 8 Sebastopol Row, in the village of Troedrhiwfuwch. William’s father worked as a Coal Hewer, while 14-year-old William himself had already entered the mines, employed as a Collier Boy—a tough and dangerous job for someone so young. His younger siblings, likely attending Troedrhiwfuwch School, were still in their formative years.

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With the outbreak of the First World War, William enlisted in Bargoed, initially joining the 2nd Battalion of The Welsh Regiment. He was later transferred to ‘B’ Company of the 14th Battalion, serving as Private 18915.

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In the closing months of the war, during a period marked by grinding trench warfare and increasing hardship on the Western Front, William lost his life on 13 February 1918, at the age of just 21. He is laid to rest at Lillers Communal Cemetery, France, a cemetery used by casualty clearing stations throughout the war.

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Though his life was tragically short, William’s name lives on—in stone, in record, and in memory. He is remembered with honour not only by his family and descendants but also by the village community he left behind.

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🕊️ “The soil of foreign fields cradles our bravest sons.”

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