Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Phillip Leslie Jones was the second youngest of nine in his family.  He was born in Port Pirie, in January, 1892.  He was known as Les.  His family later moved to Broken Hill on the train when he was six, to follow the mining boom.  From the age of thirteen he worked as a miner.  Before he enlisted he worked as a shearer.

He enlisted when he was twenty-one and three months old on the third of November 1915.  He enlisted in Adelaide in the Miners' Corps.  On his medical examination form he was described as having brown eyes and brown hair, and fair skin.  His religion was Methodist.  He was 1 metre and 70 cm tall and weighed 60.33 kg.  He was unmarried, and his parents had both died, so his next of kin was his sister, Lilian Gould.  His rank was "sapper", which was a tunneller; his background in mining was the reason for this.   His grandfather was named John Jones who was the mayor of Gawler, and created the first Methodist church there. Philip's father, John Jones was originally a farmer at Wasleys, then a wheelwright in Port Pirie before they went to Broken Hill.

Hugh Stanley Jones, Leslie's older brother, joined the army also, but was court martialled for misbehaviour and sent from Egypt back to Australia.  Soon after he was out drinking in Adelaide, and was killed with a blow to the head in Light Square, after failing to hand over his Army Severance Pay (he had given it to his mother to look after earlier that day)

On the 20th of February, 1916 Les embarked from Sydney on the H.M.A.T Ulysses to go to France.

After the long journey, on the fifth of May he disembarked at Marseilles, France.  They caught a train to Hazebrouck twelve days later.

He fought in France as a sapper.  On the third and fourth of August, 1916 he was admitted to the Third New Zealand Field Ambulance with influenza.  About three months of fighting later he was sent to another field hospital for shell shock or PTSD.  It could be assumed that Leslie Jones likely obtained his shell-shock thanks to explosion at Hill 70. 

It was about this time that his youngest sister Parnell Pendlebury Jones (now Mrs William Flynn) wrote to the Red Cross to inquire as to her brother's welfare.

Leslie was transferred to the Second Tunnelling Company on the 29th of December

From 17/8/17 to 21/8/17, Leslie Jones went absent without leave (AWOL).  He was also in possession of a falsified leave pass.  As a penalty, 15 day's pay was deducted by Lieutenant Colonel Bruggy.  Another 5 day's pay was deducted under R.W.

Less than a month later, on the 29th of the 12th 1917, he was back in the field hospital with bronchitis.  Around two weeks later, his condition had not improved and so he was put on the Hospital Ship "Essequibo" and the next day arrived to be admitted to Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester, London. 

On the second of February 1918, he was transferred to the Third Auxiliary Hospital.  About a week later he marched in from London Headquarters.  He spent time at a base at Longbridge Deverill.  By the 28th of March he went back to France via Southhampton (a port).

On the 19th of April he returned to his unit.  He was there for just over a month when, on the 29th of May, he was transferred to the 5th Field Ambulance for DAH (Disordered Action of the Heart - over exertion, mental stress, fatigue, psychiatric upset, breathlessness and heart palpitations).  Four days later he was discharged back to his unit.  He fought for four more months, when on the 29th of September, 1918 he was wounded in action.  It was described as a shrapnel (shell) wound to his right arm, left arm and his hip, and a gunshot wound to his neck and arm.  A week later he was said to be "dangerously ill".  He was sent to Graylingwell War Hospital again, where they further described his condition as having a gunshot wound to the right buttock.  He was there for about a month, until his health improved to be sent to convalesce at the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford.

Leslie is mentioned in a book.

"...September to November 1918

...Sappers 1395 Thomas Vernon and 608 Leslie Jones were seriously wounded with Thomas Vernon dying of his wounds that day."

Finlayson, D. (2010). Crumps and Camouflets. Newport, N.S.W.: Big Sky Publishing, pp.363, 433. 

On the fifth of the first, 1919, he boarded the Hospital Ship "Kanowna" to return home to Adelaide, and he was medically discharged from the military on 3/8/1919 because of his lower-lumbar gunshot wounds.  Family history says he had a child sometime after the war.  He died on the 15th of December, 1927 at the age of 35 in Adelaide and his grave remains today in the West Terrace Cemetery, AIF Light Oval (3NW, row 15).