George Victor's Story.
EARLY LIFE
George Victor Jones was baptised on 29 August 1897 at St Peter's Church, Windmill St, Macclesfield, the son of Eliza and Albert Hugh Jones, an engine driver in a silk factory, of 86 Blackshaw St, Macclesfield.
In 1901, three-year-old George was living at 13 Hobson St, Macclesfield with his parents and siblings Sarah (14), William (12), Minnie (8), Jessie (7), Albert (6), and Jennie (1). By 1911 the family, which also included Alice (9), Frank (6) and Edna (2), had moved to 17 Nelson Street, and George was employed as a card lacer.
WW1 SERVICE
George enlisted in Macclesfield on 23 January 1915, joining the local 7th (Territorial) Cheshire Regiment with service number 3277.
Private Jones was drafted to France on 18 October 1916, travelling via Southampton and Rouen, and transferred to the 13th Cheshire Regiment on 7 November 1916.
The death of Private Jones was reported in the Macclesfield Times on 31 August 1917:
ENLISTED AT SEVENTEEN - PLUCKY TERRITORIAL'S FATE
The death in action is officially reported of Private George Victor Jones, Cheshire Regt., son of Mrs Jones, 17 Nelson Street, off Park Lane, Macclesfield. He fell on August 10th.
Private Jones was only twenty years of age and was educated at St George's Day School. he attended St John's Church and Sunday School. In civil life he was employed by Messrs T Crew and Sons, Vincent Street, where his father, Mr Albert Jones, has worked for twenty-nine years. He enlisted shortly after the outbreak of war at the early age of seventeen and trained at Northampton, Bedford and Oswestry with the local Territorials, being drafted out to France last October.
Corporal Albert Jones, his brother, is serving with the Cheshires in Egypt. He was in the Macclesfield Territorials when war broke out, and was mobilised, accompanying the battalion to Suvla Bay. The Corporal also took part in the battle of Gaza. He has been in hospital twice with dysentry and enteric fever. Twenty-two years of age, he was formerly in the employ of the Silk Society, London Road.
A brother-in-law, Private Ernest Hall, Manchester Regt., has been wounded in the arm and is in England. He is thirty-four years of age and his wife resides in Stanley Street.
COMMEMORATION
Private George Jones has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel Ref. 19 - 22 on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private George Jones, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website.
In Macclesfield, Private George Jones is commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall, St Michael's Church and St John's Church war memorials.
SOURCES
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Lives of the First World War website
WWI Army Service Records
Macclesfield Times: 31 August 1917, 23 September 1921 (photo supplement)
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.