David Rees Wyndham Jones

Corporal David Rees Wyndham Jones – Rifle Brigade, 3^rd Battalion

Early Life

David Rees Wyndham Jones 

There are few surviving census records that document the Jones family of Blackpill, but available information shows that David Rees Wyndham Jones was born in 1892 in Penclawdd, the son of Lewis Jones and Sarah Ann Jones.

By the time of the First World War, the family was residing at 1 Beaufort Terrace, Blackpill, Swansea, a small community close to the Clyne Valley and Swansea Bay.

Military Service

Attestation Papers

David Jones enlisted in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the war, joining the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own). His attestation papers have survived, providing valuable personal details and confirming his early enlistment at the age of twenty-two. He was posted to the 3^rd Battalion, one of the regiment’s regular battalions that formed part of the 17^th Brigade, 24^th Division of the British Expeditionary Force.

He began his military career as a Rifleman, showing dedication and ability that led to his promotion to Corporal before his death.

By late 1916, the 3rd Battalion was serving in the Loos–Lens sector of northern France, holding the line in an area that had seen heavy fighting earlier in the war. Although the Battle of the Somme had officially ended the previous month, British forces continued to conduct raids, patrols, and defensive operations through the harsh winter of 1916–17. The Rifle Brigade’s duties involved maintaining the front-line trenches near Loos-en-Gohelle, facing persistent artillery fire, sniper activity, and freezing weather conditions.

The 3^rd Battalion War Diary records this period as one of “severe cold, intermittent shelling, and enemy trench-mortar activity”, noting casualties from both shellfire and exposure. On 28^th December 1916, several men of the battalion were killed or wounded during a bombardment while holding the front-line positions north of Loos. Among those killed that day was Corporal D. R. W. Jones (service number S/2326), whose death is confirmed in contemporary casualty lists and later memorial records.

Death and Burial

Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects

Corporal David Rees Wyndham Jones was killed in action on 28^th December 1916, aged 24. The circumstances of his death were typical of the unrelenting attrition of trench warfare — shelling, sniping, and the hardships of winter service on the Western Front.

David Rees Wyndham Jones 
Philosophe British Cemetery
credit - findagrave

He was laid to rest at Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France, a burial ground close to the sector held by the Rifle Brigade near Loos. His grave is maintained in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which records him as the son of Lewis and Sarah Ann Jones, of 1 Beaufort Terrace, Blackpill, Swansea.

The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects provide further information relating to his service and estate. These records confirm the payment of his outstanding army pay and war gratuity to his father, Lewis Jones, the recorded next of kin, in 1917 — a small but poignant administrative note marking the loss of a beloved son and soldier.

Legacy

Corporal Jones’s service and sacrifice are remembered with honour both in France and at home in Swansea. His name is inscribed on the Blackpill War Memorial, located at Clyne Chapel, alongside those of his fellow servicemen from the local area who gave their lives during the Great War.

His surviving attestation papers and the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects offer a rare and personal insight into his life and service — the record of a young Welshman who answered the call of duty, serving with courage and endurance in the freezing trenches of northern France, far from his home by the shores of Swansea Bay.