John was born in St. Pancras on 19th January 1896 and attended Ilford County High School between 8th September 1908 and 12th July 1912. Prior to that he had been a pupil at Downshall Elementary School, also in Ilford. Whilst at Ilford County High School, he passed the Oxford Junior Local Examination and a School of Arts examination in Elementary French. Upon leaving the school, he took a post as a clerk in the Urban District Company Offices.
He was the son of William and Hannah Jones. John’s family lived at 49 Cambridge Road, Seven Kings before moving to 43 Seven King’s Road, Ilford. His father was a Telegraphist working in the Civil Service.
John is recorded on the first Roll of Honour (in the Christmas 1914 school magazine, Chronicles). It gives his regiments as ‘4th Essex.’ He served as a Private in the 1st/4th Battalion of the Essex Regiment (Service Number 1739) and died of wounds received at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign. Unusually, he was buried in the East Mudros Military Cemetery on the Greek island of Limnos (Grave II. J. 177). The island was used as a garrison before the attack at Gallipoli and afterwards as the base for three allied hospitals. He was just 19 years old when he was killed.
The Christmas 1915 Chronicles reported,
‘Pte. John Emlyn Jones, whose loss we have also to grieve for, was in the local Territorial Regiment, the 4th Essex. He was in the offices of the Urban Council before the war, and joined the colours under his chief, Captain Gowan, whose death in the Gallipoli Peninsula deprived the regiment of a gallant and enthusiastic officer and Ilford of one of its most trusted public servants. Jones was somewhat intimately connected with a Mission Chapel at the Horns. We understand that of the fifteen young men who were specially conspicuous in the various organisations connected with this Mission, fourteen joined the Forces!’
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.