| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harry was born in Beverley the 19 Feb 1897 and baptised the same day at Beverley Minster. He was one of five children, and the only son, born to Charles Jones and his wife Frances. Whilst Frances was originally from Suffolk, Charles was local and from 1886-1913 was employed as a Police Constable in Beverley. They married in 1889. The family lived on Westwood Road in the 1890s but later moved to Holme Church Lane. Harry worked at Green and Son’s printers in Saturday Market as an apprentice before the war. He was a member of the local Church Lads’ Brigade from 1911 to 1914.
Harry enlisted on 30 Nov 1915, he was not mobilised until 9 Jan 1917. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner and did his training in Scotland. He was to serve with 125th and then 136th Heavy Battery, RGA. On 1 Oct 1917 he arrived in France but was wounded, suffering from a serious hernia and was moved back to the UK by hospital ship. He spent time in Bath and Winchester military hospitals. He returned to France on the 9 May 1918. The RGA fired heavy high explosive shells from behind the frontline, usually from fixed positions. Harry was involved in the Hundred Days Offensive after Aug 1918 which saw allied advances upon German lines. On 3 Nov 1918, in France and eight days before the end of the war, Harry was gassed and once again hospitalised. He left the Army in 1919 and was awarded the War and Victory medals.
In 1919 Harry married Eliza E Wilson, born in Woodmansey in 1887, her family had a farm on Long Lane. The couple had two children, the family were living on Highgate before the Second World War. Harry died in 1968 aged 71.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |