Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Killed in Action.

See also: IWM Lives of the First World War
See also: Old Wrekinian Lives Lodge 1914-18 for a detailed biography and which gives the following account:

"By 5.00pm on 29th July Robert, now i/c No.3 section, had arrived at SIEGE FARM and the following day moved into the assembly positions alongside their affiliate infantry battalions, which in his case was 7th (Service) Battalion, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. His orders were to cover the infantry consolidation on their portion of the BLUE LINE and repel any counter attack by the enemy, but in a location where his machine gunners could bring heavy sustained fire across the objective.

On the morning of Tuesday 31st July 1917 First-Lieutenant Robert Nelson Jones, i/c No.3 section, 56th Machine Gun Company, 19th (Western) Division, was shot and killed by a sniper whilst leading an attack. He was aged 32 and was survived by his widow Hilda."

Probate: JONES Robert Nelson of 113 St. George's-road Westminster Middlesex lieutenant Machine Gun Corps died 31 July 1917 in Belgium Probate London 20 September to Hilda Rose Nelson Jones widow. Effects £218 2s.

His name is listed amongst nine names of Freemasons of the Province of Gloucestershire, located at Gloucester Cathedral in the Cloisters, which was reported in the Gloucester Journal 30th October 1920: "WAR MEMORIAL ERECTED IN THE CATHEDRAL. A bronze masonic memorial tablet has recently been erected in Gloucester Cathedral to the memory of Freemasons of the Province of Gloucestershire who fell in the Great War. The tablet which was designed by Mr. N.H. Waller of College Green, Gloucester, and executed by Messrs. Martyn of Cheltenham, ahs been surmounted by masonic emblems, and placed within the cuspated stone panelling of the north wall of the Cloisters- a most appropriate position in view of the fact that the north walk owes its restoration to the munificence of the Freemasons of the county-and it has been deservedly admired by all who have seen it. Nine names are recorded in the order of Lodges to which the deceased respectively belonged."

The article goes on to list the name names, but it can be noted on this memorial it shows the date of death for Robert Nelson Jones as 31st August 1918, which is at odds with the military record.

Masonic :

Joining member of Lodge of Perseverance No. 455 a few months after his initiation. Recorded as a Schoolmaster.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley