Background
Samuel Jones was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1870 to Stephen and Levina Whitlock. By 1891, the Jones family had expanded to include three more sons, David, Ray, Arthur, and three daughters, Ida, Ellie, and Lucie. According to newspaper records, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Jones family had a home in the Devon area as Stephen and his sons found work at the local Marysville mill as labourers and mill workers. While there are few records detailing his early life as a child, as a teenager and young man, Samuel was a member of the 71st Regiment and later enlisted on October 24, 1899 in St. John and served during the South African War. The Daily Gleaner reports that while away in South Africa, Jones “distinguished himself by his unusual feats of valor” and earned himself a reputation as a reliable soldier of fortune. After returning to Canada, Samuel divided his time over the next ten years working in Fredericton and the area of Portland, Maine, all the while remaining single. Documents suggest that although he was an older man before the First World War, he utilized his experience for military service whenever possible. When the United States began raising an army to send to Mexico prior to the war, Samuel enlisted for service with the American Army before returning to Canada once he heard a force was being raised at home. His attestation papers reveal that he enlisted in St. John, New Brunswick, September 13, 1914 with the 12th Battalion. He was described as having black hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion, although his attestation during the South African War describe him as having a dark complexion. At the age of forty-five, not only was Private Jones slightly older than the usual age for service, he also was taller than normal standing five feet nine inches tall. After enlisting in St. John, Samuel arrived to Valcartier with the first contingent of recruits from the 71st Regiment for the war.
Wartime Experience
On October 4, 1914, Private Samuel Jones left Canada from Quebec aboard the S.S. Scotian for Salisbury Plain, England. He spent the winter of 1914-1915 with the 12th Battalion in England. According to his service record, Samuel was often found resistant to military protocols as he routinely was absent without leave, breaking arrest and detention, and was repeatedly fined for “drunkenness”. Despite these problems, because the first winter of the war was a difficult one for the Canadian contingent, as a veteran of previous conflicts Jones was likely an important figure for many young and less experienced soldiers trying to adapt to life during the war. By late April 1915, Private Jones was in northern France and Belgium as part of a group of reinforcements filling gaps in other battalions with him joining the Royal Montreal Regiment near St. Julien, Belgium. Jones was arriving just as the use of chemical weapons on the Western Front was being introduced. On April 22, 1915, known as the Second Battle of Ypres, Germans launched an offensive which began with the usual artillery bombardment of enemy lines. However, when the shelling died down, the Allies waited for the first wave of German attack troops but instead encountered chlorine gas wafting across no-man’s land and down into their trenches. Arriving just a few days after this gas attack, on the night of May 8 Samuel was leading a night listening patrol of German trench lines when he encountered enemy barbed wire and machine gun fire that was directed at their position. In total, there were eleven casualties, including Private Jones, injured or killed when they were unable to escape from the impossible situation. Shortly after, newspapers in Fredericton reported Sam as missing and likely killed while also noting other prominent Fredericton soldiers, Archie Smith and Arnold Smith who had left with the 12th Battalion as well in early 1914 together. At the time of his death, Samuel Jones was approximately forty-seven years old. His body was never recovered.
Lest We Forget
Private Samuel Jones is remembered with honour on the Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial, in Ypres, Belgium. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate bears the names of approximately 55, 000 individuals who died in Belgium and who have no known grave.