POW Sidney Percy Jones

By Diane Jones, Vernon

He was a kind, gentle man. We all miss him very much.

My father-in-law, Sidney Percy Jones, was born December 16, 1896, in Deptford, Kent, England. He immigrated to Canada with his parents and six siblings in the spring of 1911 aboard SS Corsican. The family lived in Regina until the death of the second-eldest son, Ernest, in 1912. Sidney decided to leave Regina but returned to join the Canadian Army in October 1914. His army number was 73668. He was eighteen years of age and five feet eight inches tall.

The battalion trained in Canada until April 29, 1915, when it sailed from Montreal to England on SS Northland. On September 7, we find Sidney in Otter Pool Army Camp, where he forfeited one day’s pay for being absent.

He embarked for France ten days later and disembarked at Boulogne, France. He went into action at the battle of Ypres, where he went missing in action on June 6, 1916.

He was unofficially reported wounded and a POW at Reserve Lazarett 5 Hanover, which was a military hospital for POWs. By mid-August he was officially reported as a POW at nearby Celle Lager Prisoner of War Camp. In October, Sidney was transferred to Soltau and then in November 1916 was moved to Hameln, Hanover.

Sidney often told the story of pouring boiling water on his foot so he would be hospitalized and wouldn’t have to work in the salt mines. Unfortunately he chose November 10, 1918, to injure himself, the day before Armistice. Because of the injuries, his return home was delayed.

He arrived at Ripon, North Yorkshire, in England on December 22, 1918. He had served in France for nine months and was a POW for two and a half years. In the early 1970s I asked him some questions about World War I and he spoke easily about the war. I didn’t know at the time that he had not spoken about the war except for the boiling water incident. My mother-in-law and husband had not heard these stories before.

We have his medals and a letter from Buckingham Palace dated 1918 and signed by King George V, or his scribe.

[To Top]

[Back to Our Own: The Regiments]

[Back to Contents]