Commemorated: | |||
| 1. Grave: | Holyhead (Maeshyfryd) Burial Board Cemetery | II. 1553 | |
| 2. Book: | The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918 | Pg.127 | |
Awards & Titles: | |||
Early Life :
Son of Richard Jones and Elizabeth Roberts Jones of 5, Roberts Street, Holyhead. Husband of Margaret Ellen Stanley, whom he married in 1897 and with whom he had at least two daughters. Margaret died in 1910, and he re-married. Husband of Mrs. G. S. Jones, of 5, Roberts Street, Holyhead.His pension record show widow details as Mrs Sally Jones & daughter, formerly of "c/o [Olers Field] 4 Albemarle St Picadilly W.1." with reference to other addresses:
West London Mission, 6 Charlton St., Euston Rd., London N.W.1 (Struck out)
363 Holy Lodge [Mans], Holy Lodge Estate, Highgate N.6. (Struck out)
Elderslie, Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester, Lancs.
Service Life:
Campaigns:
- The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.
| Unit / Ship / Est.: RMS Leinster |
"Mike: John Hartley http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t54961.html Dublin/Holyhead ferry. The 3000 ton ship was owned by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company and made the passage between the two ports twice a day. The owners of the ship had been warned that she might be target for German submarines and the Company had made several unsuccessful requests to the Ministry of Shipping for a naval escort. On this day, she left Ireland with 687 passengers and 70 crew. The Manchester Guardian, the next day, reported ?Leinster was torpedoed and sunk this morning on the voyage from Kingstown to Holyhead. There were some 700 people on board and over 400 are missing. The boats were got out and some of the passengers were taken off then. Others were picked up from rafts. Some of them were on rafts an hour before they were rescued. Destroyers and other naval craft went to the help of the Leinster?s people. Men, women and children were struggling in the water, others clinging to the rafts and bodies and wreckage were floating about.? Mr Jones, the ship?s fourth engineer had recounted to the newspaper that two torpedoes had struck the vessel. The first, forward near the mail sorting office and the second had hit the vessel amidships, two or three minutes later. The ship had been about an hour out of port and still lies about 12 miles off the coast. U-Boat-123 never made it home safely. She hit a mine in the North sea and sank. there were a lot of soldiers on board going to / from leave Seems to be some confusion regarding numbers lost. Hocking (Disasters at Sea) states the ship left port with ""with 680 passengers and crew under command of Capt. W. Birch. When only a few hours out she was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank with the loss of 480 lives."" These numbers seem 'round,' a technique used when exact numbers are not known. British Vessels Lost at Sea (which usually only gives crew losses) states 176 lost including the master. This number seems high for a 2,646 grt vessel, but being a ferry it would probably have required lots of additional staff to deal with the pasengers. Also, according to Hocking, it carried 22 Post Office staff to deal with mail. I suspect the loss figure for passengers (which includes the troops) is something like 687 total on board (using JH's passenger number) less the 176 crew lost (from BVLAS), which gives 511. See also http://www.rmsleinster.com/home.htm" |
| Action : Naval Campaign |
Naval Campaign is defined as to include all sea operations where attrition rates are in ones and twos and which do not fall within specific naval battles such as Jutland, Coronel, Falklands etc. This includes Merchant Navy losses.
Detail :
Owen John Jones was serving as 2nd Steward aboard the SS "Leinster" and was drowned on the 10th October, 1918.
RMS Leinster was an Irish ship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. She served as the Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire)-Holyhead mailboat until she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-123 on 10 October 1918, while bound for Holyhead. She went down just outside Dublin Bay at a point 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) east of the Kish light.
The exact number of dead is unknown but researchers from the National Maritime Museum believe it was at least 564, this would make it the largest single loss of life in the Irish Sea.
He is buried at Holyhead (Maeshyfryd) Cemetery Plot 2. Grave 1553.
Masonic :
| Type | Lodge Name and No. | Province/District : |
|---|---|---|
| Mother : | Lodge of St Cybi No. 597 E.C. | North Wales |
Initiated | Passed | Raised |
25th May 1915 | 26th October 1915 | 28th December 1915 |
In the 1921 Book, The Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918 it shows Owen John Jones recorded as one of three who fell for St Cybi Lodge No. 597. His service rank is listed as 2nd Steward. There are two members of this name, but the fallen is he who was initiated in May 1915.Although no war service is explicitly recorded, the final annotation is that he "Died 10th Oct 1918."
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