Thomas Ace

A Digger in a Pauper’s Grave – My Way of Thanking Private Daniel JONES NX25613, by Kerrie Turon Posted on 12 July, 2011 by gary

Martha Williams, her brother & mother came out to Brisbane, Australia from Wales in 1878. In 1879 she married Thomas Ace & there were born 7 children born to this marriage, but one died in infancy. Martha & Tom went up to Charter’s Towers to seek their fortune on the gold fields, this first marriage ended when tragedy struck with a mining accident taking the life of her first husband. Martha was widowed with 6 children – the youngest only 4 months old, at the young age of 28.

The hardships of life on the gold fields for a single woman with young children were improved by her marrying again in 1890 to David JONES. Together, David & Martha had 6 children; but unfortunately, though not uncommonly, 2 boys born to this marriage also died in infancy. Together, David & Martha raised their large, young family on the goldfields. Martha made homemade sweets on her camp stove which the children were able to take around & sell to help with the finances a little.

As the children grew up, four of the children from the first marriage went to live in New Zealand; the three sons that went, all ended up joining up & going to war for New Zealand & fighting as part of our ANZACS.

At some stage, David & Martha &, I guess, most of the JONES children came down to Newcastle to live Where David died in January, 1913 leaving Martha widowed for the second time. Of the four surviving, now adult JONES children, Daniel was the only one to join up. He left Australia to go to war in May 1916. Another son, William was my grandfather & as he was working as a miner he was therefore not required to go. The daughter, Ellen, married David Lewis & at the tender age of just 23 he was killed in action at Ypres in France leaving her behind, a widow, with 2 small daughters. Like her mother Martha, Ellen re-married & had 4 more children (one dying in infancy), but WW2 took another of her men when one of these sons was to die in on the Sandakan death march.

Daniel JONES was a different man after returning from the war & instead of coming back to Boolaroo where his sister & a brother lived, he chose to live in a boarding house in Sydney, a bit of a loner. He had also begun to drink & he never married. I never had the privilege of knowing any of my great aunts or uncles, but was always curious about “family”. I had never been able to find out where Dan was buried because my mum had said he died before I was born – 1961. Daniel JONES is a common name for sure, but all my mum could remember was that her dad (Dan’s brother William) had been contacted by the police to come to Sydney to identify the body of his brother. Mum believed he had been buried in a pauper’s grave at Rookwood, but on checking their records, there was no Daniel Jones that fitted – prior to 1961. This curiosity while not going away was shelved for years & late in 2010 I decided to try again. It just didn’t sit right with me that someone who had given so much of himself to secure my freedom was buried who knew where in an unmarked grave. I decided to assume that my mum had her timing wrong & expanded my date search later into the 1960’s. Bingo! I found a Daniel JONES that fitted & no wonder I didn’t know him, he died just a year after I was born. He was in fact listed on Rookwood’s records & I found it easily in the on-line database. Actually, he was listed at Field of Mars cemetery, but those records are incorporated with Rookwood’s. I rang the Rookwood office & was helped by a very pleasant lady. I told her what I was looking for & wondered if she could give me anything more on the person interred at Field of Mars that would make me certain. The date & age would have lined up with my Daniel, on the burial record, but it is a common name…. She looked in the original file & all she could add was that “Anzac House owned the plot”. This was enough for me. I ordered Dan’s death certificate from the BMD register & when it came it proved without a doubt that I had found him at last.

The lady at Rookwood had also told me that when I went to look at the grave, if indeed it was unmarked, Dan may be eligible for a memorial from the Veteran’s affairs & she gave me the number to call in case this was the case. I could hardly wait to drive to Sydney (I live in Newcastle) to see for myself. On locating the plot, I found that it was unmarked, but that it was in a very tidy area, obviously set aside for veterans. Many of the graves were marked; many were unmarked, including Daniel’s.

IMAGE RIGHT: The unmarked plot where NX25613 Private Daniel JONES lay buried at the Field of Mars Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia.

I rang the number the lady had given me & was helped by a kind man who explained the process & posted me out the forms I would need to complete. Veteran’s affairs needed a copy of the death certificate to ascertain the cause of death, as it needs to be determined that death occurred as a result of the vet’s war service. Although I didn’t think Dan would fall into that category, I was told not to be so sure as they have experts who look at things from a different perspective than I may. The forms arrived & I filled them out as required. I was contacted not too long after to let me know that Dan had been approved for a grave memorial! I was SO excited! I was even able to add a few details of my own to the official items that are standard to the memorial wording.

IMAGE LEFT: The plaque, commemorating the life and military service of NX25613 Private Daniel JONES, Headquarters, 208 Australian Supply Depot, Australian Army Service Corps (A.A.S.C.) – Field of Mars Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia.

My next area to explore was to see if I could locate Dan’s medals. I was very blessed to already have in my possession his 1939-1945 star, but had no idea of the whereabouts of the others; the British War Medal, Defence Medal, Pacific Star & Australian Service Medal. As Dan never married or had children, I could only guess (unsuccessfully as to who had them). The 39-45 Star I had was given to me some years back by the 80+ year old daughter-in-law of Dan’s sister Ellen, not long before she died. She had known Dan & told me what she could about him, but didn’t know what had happened to the other medals.

IMAGE RIGHT: A 1939-1945 Star similar to that awarded to Private Daniel JONES. This medal was awarded to all service personnel who undertook operational service between 1939 and 1945. The three vertical stripes which adorn the ribbon of the 1939-1945 Star are coloured dark blue (representing the Navy and Merchant Navy), red (to represent the Army) and light blue (to represent the Air Force). Daniel JONES must have served operationally for a minimum of six months (180 days) to ave been eligible for this award.

I was “googling” around & came across this site; Medals Gone Missing. WOW! What a wonderful surprise. A whole site dedicated to re-uniting war memorabilia with its rightful owners! After looking through the site I decided to immediately register Dan’s medals in the chance that someone might just be looking for their owner. I registered them separately & the sites’ owner, Gary e-mailed me promptly to let me know that they were a not-for-profit organisation & that I could register them all together for the one fee. I was gob smacked. I had also registered that I was trying to locate another medal from another great uncle & he told me that it hadn’t in fact been issued to him. He explained why I had thought it was as I had taken information from the service record & said that I wasn’t the first to be mis-lead on this matter. I rang Gary to talk about some things & found him to be not just very helpful, but also kind, knowledgeable & totally dedicated to his cause. He also was saving me money! He gave me some pointers on quite a few things including buying replacement medals as I have a son in the R.A.A.F. & would like to give him the family medals. He even asked if a small service would be appropriate when Dan’s memorial is laid!

Unfortunately, there are no family members left that would attend such a service, but I decided to write this tribute with photos of Dan’s grave, both before & after his memorial was built.

IMAGE LEFT: No longer in a pauper’s grave! A fitting resting place for Australian soldier, Private Daniel JONES, Headquarters – Australian Army Service Corps.

Oh yes, I mustn’t finish without letting you know that our Martha did die a happy old lady at the ripe old age of 83, after marrying & being widowed a third time! We tend to think that folk didn’t travel so much back in the “olden days”, but after D. J. Jones passed on, Martha took a holiday, sailing to New Zealand to visit a son from her first marriage & his wife & came back to Australia married to her daughter-in-law’s father!

Daniel Jones was just one man. We all have just one life. When many of these single lives linked together in the common cause to protect their country many lost their one life. But not one of them was wasted.

We all need to be keenly aware of the price that was paid for our freedom.