Thomas JONES
Image from the Oxford Mail, 26 May 1945.
Thomas Jones, known as Tommy, is not named on the memorial in St John the Evangelist, New Hinksey, but we feel that he should be, because his wife (whom he married only a few months before his death) and her family lived in Cold Harbour.
Tommy Jones was born in 1920, the son of William and Kathlyn Jones of North Wales. Because Jones is a very common surname, particularly in Wales, it has been hard to find out anything about Tommy’s early life. We do know however that in late 1944, in Oxford, he married Gwynneth Bailey, the daughter of Rupert Bailey (a caretaker at the Bodleian Library’s Divinity School) and his wife Mary. Tommy was 24 and Gwynneth (known as Gwynn) was eighteen. She and her parents and six siblings lived at 10 Bertie Place in Cold Harbour, and Gwynn continued to live there after her marriage, whilst Tommy was away on active service.
During the war, almost certainly before he and Gwynn married, Tommy joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He served with 2839 Squadron, a ground defence and light anti-aircraft unit, as a Leading Aircraftman. The squadron moved from Southend on the south-east coast of Essex, inland to RAF Stapleford Tawney, near Epping, in late 1944. On 23 January 1945, a German V2 rocket fell on the aircraft hangar there, killing at least eleven men, including Tommy. He was 24, and he and Gwynn had been married for less than four months.
Three and a half months later, on 8 May 1945, the war in Europe ended. On 26 May the Oxford Mail reported Tommy’s death. He and most of his fellow airmen who died in the bombing were buried at North Weald Bassett (St Andrew) Churchyard, near Stapleford Tawney. The inscription on his gravestone reads ‘In loving memory of Tommy / Beloved husband of Gwynn / Killed by enemy action / Treasured memories always.’
Tommy is also commemorated on the Oxford City Second World War Roll of Honour, which is in the church of St Michael at the Northgate on Cornmarket.
Research by Siobhan Lancaster; with thanks to Lesley Dewhurst.