Pte John Lloyd Hughes - Welshman in the AEF

[Gideon]

I wonder if anyone can help me with details of a Welshman who joined the American Expeditionary Force? I have been trying to trace the service details of Pte John Lloyd Hughes, a Welshman from Bangor who joined the US Army in 1916 and went to France with the AEF as a member of an Ambulance Company in 1917 or 1918. He died of pneumonia in 1918 whilst in France.

Pte Hughes was originally buried somewhere in France, but his body was later exhumed and repatriated to North Wales, so he does not have a record on the US military graves register. The grave is in Caeathro near Bangor, but the family has no details of his military service apart from a YMCA postcard from France in 1918. As his great nephew, I would like to find out a bit more about him.

Grateful for any pointers.

[tipperary]

Hi Lestyn i am trying to track my great uncle also below is a link to my thread and the advice given to me may help you.John

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=170814

[Hywyn]

Iestyn

I have his Draft Card somewhere but can't readily find it at the moment. I'll look again It'll be on Ancestry but if I remember correctly it wasn't a good scan. I also have photos of the grave at Caeathro but you probably already have these.

Hywyn

[Gideon]

Hi Lestyn i am trying to track my great uncle also below is a link to my thread and the advice given to me may help you.John

http://1914-1918.inv...howtopic=170814

Munster,

Many thanks for the useful thread. Best of luck with your great uncle.

Iestyn

[Gideon]

Iestyn

I have his Draft Card somewhere but can't readily find it at the moment. I'll look again It'll be on Ancestry but if I remember correctly it wasn't a good scan. I also have photos of the grave at Caseathro but you probably already have these.

Hywyn

Hywyn,

Thank you. It was a message from you last year to another subscriber, about a newspaper article, that led me to the Great War Forum in the first place, so I am very grateful. I do indeed have a photograph of the family grave at Caeathro, and may have a photograph of Pte Lloyd Jones in uniform, although we have nothing to indicate if the photograph includes him. I have not yet tackled the US archive labyrinth - something to look forward to.

Regards,

Iestyn

[Hywyn]

Iestyn

OK. I have found the Draft Card. It is a poor copy though. I'm frantically trying to find the newspaper article so as to ascertain which paper and what date in case there's more in one of the other papers. I have inserted the 1901 census details for them at Prince's Rd on my Bangor folder but no the newspaper data!

One thing you may want to consider is tracking down the ChapelBurial Book for the date of internment* and then looking at contemporary newspapers for a report. Given that no British soldiers were so repatriated it may have made a bit of a splash. Burial Book maybe at Caernarfon Archives. The newspapers will be.

I have a note of Thomas Lloyd Jones of Princess Rd as a Paymaster Surgeon in RFA in April 1915. No idea what that rank means yet or whether it'san attachment to the RFA as I haven't followed it up yet only to the extent of not being readily able to find a medal card for him. Was David Lloyd Hughes at that Bangor address during WW1?

Hywyn

* I can't quite make out the inscription re the repatriation on my photo of the grave.

[Gideon]

Hywyn,

Sorry for the delay - I have been away on business.

Excellent advice. I have a copy of the entry details in the chapel burial book on file - I went through it some years ago with the minister (I was lucky just to bump into him at the chapel) - so I can follow up dates with the local newspapers.

The Thomas Lloyd Jones you mention from Princess Road was my grandfather. He, like John and another brother David, were all working in Chicago in 1914. Thomas enlisted in the British Army as soon as he could travel back, and joined the Royal Field Artillery. After training, he led a detachment of an Artillery Column, which was responsible for moving the thousands of artillery rounds from ammunition depots to its Divisional gun batteries. He had been a teacher before joining up, so assisting in the pay office would make sense, but I have not come across the role of Paymaster Surgeon before. Certainly by February 1916 he was in France as a Sergeant moving horse-drawn ammunition limbers around the battlefield. He received a "blighty" wound at the Somme.

I don't know what their elder brother David got up to. He was back from Chicago by the end of the war, and ran an ironmonger shop in Bangor thereafter, but I do not know if he also enlisted in the British Army.

I will transcribe the burial inscription for John Lloyd Hughes when I can track it down.

Many thanks,

Iestyn

Iestyn

OK. I have found the Draft Card. It is a poor copy though. I'm frantically trying to find the newspaper article so as to ascertain which paper and what date in case there's more in one of the other papers. I have inserted the 1901 census details for them at Prince's Rd on my Bangor folder but no the newspaper data!

One thing you may want to consider is tracking down the ChapelBurial Book for the date of internment* and then looking at contemporary newspapers for a report. Given that no British soldiers were so repatriated it may have made a bit of a splash. Burial Book maybe at Caernarfon Archives. The newspapers will be.

I have a note of Thomas Lloyd Jones of Princess Rd as a Paymaster Surgeon in RFA in April 1915. No idea what that rank means yet or whether it'san attachment to the RFA as I haven't followed it up yet only to the extent of not being readily able to find a medal card for him. Was David Lloyd Hughes at that Bangor address during WW1?

Hywyn

* I can't quite make out the inscription re the repatriation on my photo of the grave.

[Trebrys]

S'mai Iestyn,

I've done a lot of work on Welsh-Americans too..........I'll see if I can unearth stuff on him from across the Iwerydd too!

Trebrys