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E A Jones (War Service).
Ernest Allen Jones was born 28 June 1897, the son of Ernest Maidment Jones and Eulant Sarah nee Gray of Bannockburn. He was educated at Bannockburn State School and Geelong College, which he left in 1913.
He then joined the staff of the Bank of Australasia but, on turning 18, enlisted (2416) in the AIF on 4 September 1915. He embarked for Egypt on 14 March 1916 on
HMAT A68 Anchises, and after a short stay there he reached France in May, soon going into action as a Signaller in 46 Battalion, 12th Brigade. In one of his last letters home he spoke of having, in one engagement, received a bullet through his helmet, while Captain Ormond Purnell, an Old Collegian, was killed by his side, on 13 November 1916.
Private Ernest Allen Jones was killed in action at Gueudecourt (Stormy Trench) on 12 February 1917, and was buried in Bancourt British Cemetery - Grave VII.C.18. 4
Jones’ cousin, Corporal Albert Charles Robert Thom, 21 Battalion, died of wounds in France on 13 October 1918, and was buried at St Sever Cemetery Extension, France – Grave S.II.V.1, leaving a widow, Mrs Elizabeth Thom, of Portarlington.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. pp56-57 (citing Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Photo Pegasus May 1917.)