Percy Griffith Jones, 20 Squadron

[Trebrys]

I've recently discovered that Percy Griffith Jones of 20 Squadron had his parents living in Yr Wyddgrug (Mold in English), North Wales according to his listing on the War Graves Commission website. I work in that town and saw his name on the cenotaph this morning.

He was credited with five victories as an observer from May to July 1918 before being shot down and killed by someone on 2 July 1918. The 1901 Census has him living in Waterloo, Liverpool, though both his parents were from Caernarfonshire and Anglesey respectively.

Would anyone have any specific details about him other than those found in "Above the War Fronts" by Franks, Guest and Alegi that list his kills. Would anyone know of any photos of him?

Any help would be gratefully accepted.

Trebrys.

[Testerchild2]

Trebrys,

I can't add anything about the man himself, but do have details of his last flight. He was flying as observer to Lt. T C Traill in Bristol Fighter 'B1344' on an offensive patrol of nine Bristols, when at about 8.40 am they engaged some Pfalz scouts Southeast of Gheluvelt. Traill dived on a Pfalz that was attacking another Bristol and fired about 50 rounds into it from a range of 60 yards. The Pfalz then went down on its back a long way, and its fall developed into a spin. Shortly afterwards a number of Fokker DVII's dived into the fight and one came down behind them at very close range from out of the sun. (The foregoing details are from Traill's combat report at the PRO). The result of this attack is recorded in the observer's flying logbook of Lt. Brodie Wilson, who spoke to Traill afterwards. "Jones hit Traill on the head, but before Traill could get the bus into a spin the aileron controls were shot away, the joystick partly stuck, and Jones was hit in the stomach by an explosive bullet, which did not come out of his coat on the other side and made an awful mess of him." As to the Pfalz Traill attacked: "Other members of the patrol saw an enemy machine burst into flames after going down a good distance."

According the "The Jasta War Chronology" by N Franks et al, pilots from Jasta 56 and Jasta 16 were involved, claiming two other 20 Squadron Bristol's that were lost in this fight. One of the three claims may well refer to Traill & Jones' machine, but in fact Traill got it down safely at St Marie Cappel. Neither German unit reported any casualties that day. Jones was buried at St Omer next day with Traill and Brodie Wilson in attendance.

(Wilson's logbook is very detailed and is held at the RAF Museum at Hendon).

Sorry I don't have any more at the moment, and apologies for the slow reply: I've been away a few days.

Bob

[Trebrys]

Dear Bob,

I was very pleased to receive this. I knew none of this information which is quite detailed in fact. Many thanks. Please don't apologise as I was beginning to despair that no-one had anything on him!

Once again, many thanks!

Regards,

Iwan.

[cpnorfolk]

On 20/06/2007 at 17:41, Trebrys said:

I've recently discovered that Percy Griffith Jones of 20 Squadron had his parents living in Yr Wyddgrug (Mold in English), North Wales according to his listing on the War Graves Commission website. I work in that town and saw his name on the cenotaph this morning.

He was credited with five victories as an observer from May to July 1918 before being shot down and killed by someone on 2 July 1918. The 1901 Census has him living in Waterloo, Liverpool, though both his parents were from Caernarfonshire and Anglesey respectively.

Would anyone have any specific details about him other than those found in "Above the War Fronts" by Franks, Guest and Alegi that list his kills. Would anyone know of any photos of him?

Trebrys,

I don't know if you are still interested in Percy Jones. There is quite a lot about him in my grandfather TC Traill's memoirs (in the IWM collection). I already have one section up on my Wordpress site dealing with the events of 29th May 1918, see: 

https://tctraill.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/we-did-not-have-parachutes-then/
 

I will be typing up more to put on the website, hopefully this week, including a detailed description of the day Jones died.

Unfortunately no photos of my grandfather's time in 20 Squadron have survived, consequently I cannot offer you any photos of Jones.

Regards

Crispin Partridge 

 

[pjwmacro]

@cpnorfolk Crispin thank you for sharing your website. Look forward to reading more of TC Trail's memories. 

Regards Paul 

[Matlock1418]

On 20/06/2007 at 17:41, Trebrys said:

Percy Griffith Jones of 20 Squadron had his parents living in Yr Wyddgrug (Mold in English), North Wales according to his listing on the War Graves Commission website.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/20652/percy-griffith-jones Son of Griffith and Annie Jones, of The Chalet, Mold.

MIC as Royal Engineers, Sapper, 69495 - address matches CWGC

Image thanks to WFA/Fold3

London Gazette Commission: CORPS OF ROYAL ENGINEERS ... The undermentioned Cadets to be temp. 2nd Lts. (on prob.). 10th Mar. 1917: — ... Percy Griffith Jones

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29999/supplement/2969

M

[Michelle Young]

Paging @Trebrys

[Clive ex RAF plumber]

Hi Trebrys, Just finished reading Winged Sabres by Robert A, Sellwood published by Pen & Sword available on Amazon Books.  It is a history of 20 Squadron in the Great War and definitely references P. G. Jones's last combat and if memory serves me correct both Traill (his pilot) and him have numerous mentions.  Hope this is of help.  Kind Regards Clive 

[Trebrys]

Hi there!

I've been away from this for quite a while now, so thank you all for this. I'll look into this further when I can. Thank you all so much!

Iwan

Edited 8 February by Trebrys