Family snap during the maelstrom of war
The long memory of a 90-year-old Shropshire Star reader has proven the key to helping researchers crack the riddle of a photograph taken of an unidentified Great War soldier from Mid Wales and his family.
The Army Children of the First World War project, set up as part of the commemorations of the centenary of the conflict, knew only that it was taken by a Welshpool studio, but after it was published in the Star Miss Eileen Gordon of Welshpool came forward to say she recognised the soldier as William Jones, who was commonly known as Billy Blue.
Miss Gordon, who had known William in later life, also recognised the girl in the centre as his daughter Myfanwy Jones, who kept a coffee shop in Hall Street, Welshpool. The family, she said, lived at 11 Hall Street.
Clare Gibson, founder of The Army Children Archive, the aim of which is to collect, preserve and share information about British Army children and their history, said: "Miss Gordon's info gave us something to go on, and we have consequently learned a little more about the family at the time of the First World War.
"We carried out some research and now believe that we have identified Myfanwy’s elder brothers and mother. According to the 1911 census, a family then resident at Oakwood, Bronybuckley, Welshpool, were William Alfred Jones, aged 40, a tea merchant working on his own account; his wife, Annie, aged 38; and their children, Gwilym Ivor, aged nine; Robert Gorowny, aged eight; and Annie Myfanwy, aged five. William and Annie could speak English and Welsh; their children were English-speakers.
"We were also able to access William Alfred Jones’s service record, which states that he was resident at Oakwood, Welshpool, when he enlisted in the British Army’s Territorial Force on March 4, 1915, aged 44, joining the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
"Damage to the service record makes it difficult to follow the exact course of his subsequent postings, but they included transfers to the Protection Company, Royal Defence Corps, in 1916; to the Monmouth Regiment in 1917; and to the Labour Corps before his demobilisation on March 3, 1919.
"He served as a private throughout his four years as a soldier. His next of kin is named as his wife, resident at 11 Hall Street, Welshpool, North Wales.
"Taken as a whole, these details tie in with Miss Gordon’s memories. If we are correct, it therefore means that William and his wife, Annie, and their children, Gwilym Ivor, Robert Gorowny and Annie Myfanwy, posed for their photograph in their home town while William was still serving in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, that is, between March 1915 and his first transfer in April 1916.
"It must have been hard for the family to have been separated from William during the First World War, but it is good to know that he survived the conflict.
"We are most grateful to Miss Gordon and the Shropshire Star for filling in the blanks about the picture, and so enabling us to learn a little more about William Jones and his family at the time of the First World War."
The information has enabled the project to update its blog (http://bit.ly/ACFWW228) and provide the following caption: Private William Jones, then of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, pictured in Welshpool in 1915 or 1916 with his wife, Annie, and children Gwilym Ivor, Robert Gorowny and Annie Myfanwy.
