Leonard Cecil Arthur Jones

Corporal Leonard Cecil Arthur Jones — Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Early Life

In March 1945, the grave of Corporal Leonard Cecil Arthur Jones was added to the rows at St. Hilary’s Churchyard, Killay.

Cecil Stanley Jones and Fanny Collins
marriage certificate
Parish Church of Bersted South, Sussex

Leonard was born in 1915 in Bognor, Sussex, the son of Cecil Stanley Jones and Fanny Collins, who had married in 1909 at the Parish Church of Bersted South, Sussex. His father died while Leonard was still a child, leaving his mother to raise her sons alone.

1921 Census

The 1921 Census records Fanny, then a widow aged 35, living at 2 Crescent Cottages, Ivy Lane, South Bersted, where she carried out household duties and cared for her two boys: Albert Henry (12) and Leonard (6).

1939 Register 

By the time of the 1939 Register, Leonard was still living with his mother at Crescent Cottages. Now a young man of 24, his occupation was listed as house painter and decorator, a skilled trade he had taken up to support the household.

Marriage and Family Life

In 1941, Leonard married Ethel May Ewens in Chichester. Their wedding came in the shadow of the Second World War, a time when many young couples faced the uncertainties of conflict but pressed forward in hope, nonetheless.

Military Service

Not long after, Leonard enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, rising to the rank of Corporal. He was posted to No. 11 Armament Practice Camp (APC), which had been established at RAF Fairwood Common on 1^st October 1943.

The camp played a vital role in preparing aircrews for the realities of combat. At Fairwood, a stretch of disused railway line was fitted with a driverless engine, allowing pilots to practice attacking trains with rockets and cannon fire—training that was essential for the RAF’s evolving ground-attack tactics. Between 1943 and 1945, no fewer than 29 squadrons passed through the camp before it closed on 1 July 1945.

As part of this unit, Leonard’s duties would have involved supporting the complex training regime that sharpened the skills of fighter pilots before they went into action.

Death and Burial

Leonard Cecil Arthur Jones
St. Hilary church, Killay
credit - findagrave

On 17 March 1945—St. Patrick’s Day—Corporal Leonard Cecil Arthur Jones lost his life while serving at RAF Fairwood Common. The precise circumstances of his death remain unrecorded, but it came only weeks before the war in Europe reached its conclusion, a reminder of how lives continued to be claimed even in the conflict’s final stages.

Leonard was laid to rest with honour at St. Hilary’s Churchyard, Killay, where his grave stands among those of servicemen from across Britain and the Commonwealth who also met their end in Swansea during the war. His headstone bears the tender words chosen by his widow:

“SWEET ARE THE MEMORIES OF ONE I LOVED, ALWAYS TRUE AND KIND. SADLY MISSED BY HIS WIFE.”

These lines capture the depth of personal loss behind the formal record of service, reminding us that each name in St. Hilary’s carries with it a story of love, grief, and remembrance.

Legacy

Corporal Leonard Jones’s story is one of quiet but vital service. Though not a combat pilot, his work with No. 11 Armament Practice Camp placed him at the heart of the RAF’s preparation for the final, decisive years of the war. His death at just 29 years old left his widow, Ethel May, to mourn the loss of a husband whose life had been shaped by both family duty and wartime service.

At St. Hilary, his grave stands as a reminder that sacrifice came not only from those who flew into battle, but also from those who enabled and supported them—ordinary men whose lives were claimed in the course of extraordinary times.