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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 479

Three: Private W. H. Jones, 1/6th (Carnarvonshire & Anglesey) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers

1914-15 Star (1742 Pte. W. H. Jones, R.W. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (1742 Pte. W. H. Jones, R.W. Fus.), mounted as worn, good very fine (3)

William H. Jones landed as a Private in the 1/6th (Carnarvonshire & Anglesey) Battalion at 'C' Beach in Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 8 August 1915. In his memoir, Sixty Years a Welsh Territorial, Lord Silsoe recalls how the Battalion went into action on the 10th, getting bogged down on crossing Salt Lake under heavy shrapnel fire. It's a depressing theme echoed in the Battalion's war diary, which speaks of 'nothing but sand and shrapnel'.

By the end of August, only 12 officers remained of the 30 who had departed England in the previous month and, by September, the much-depleted ranks of the Battalion had to be amalgamated with the 5th (Flintshire) Battalion, R.W.F.; to rub salt into the wound, a heavy thunderstorm on the night of 26-27 October flooded the unit's positions, leaving the trenches 2-3 feet deep in water - 'many Turkish bodies floated down'.

The Battalion went on to witness further action in Egypt and Palestine, being present at the First and Third Battles of Gaza. On 26th March, the Battalion captured the strong position of Ali el Muntar:

'We found a strange scene of turmoil, masses of dead and wounded of both sides, a lot more people nearly frantic with thirst and excitement, and a great mixing of units' (Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, refer).

The position was evacuated at the point of success, primarily due to the extreme difficulty of communication over such great distances. The Battalion's actions at the third and final battle are described in some detail in the preceding listing.


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Sold for
£140