Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Private Herbert Howard Jones has a brief service record. When he enlisted at Holsworthy on 30 August 1915, he declared his age as ’19 years 2 mths’. He also stated he was a ‘mechanical engineer’, although no record of an apprenticeship has been found.
Jones and five other Auburn Memorial men, Owen Coughlan, George Jerome, John Hoban, Charles Waterhouse, and Clyde Davis, sailed on the Suevic in December 1915. He took almost a year to get to the Western Front via Egypt and Étaples, the Australian base on the coast of France. He marched into the 13th Battalion on 27 July 1916 and was killed in action 17 days later.
The bodies of 15 Auburn Memorial men, including Jones, lost in the fighting around Pozières, were never found. Their names are inscribed on the wall of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
Herbert was born in Windsor, NSW. On enlistment, he nominated his father as next-of-kin with an address of Sackville, NSW. His father moved to Auburn during the war and, it is presumed, put his son’s name forward to the Auburn Memorial committee. It is also presumed that family members put Herbert’s name forward for the local Wilberforce District Memorial.
Herbert Jones is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Wilberforce District Memorial and Gates
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
