Jones, William Powell

William Powell (Bill) Jones was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps. Bill was born 25 Oct 1911 and was aged 30 when he was captured in Crete.

Bill was born  near Bangor in North Wales but later lived in Barnsley, Yorkshire. When war broke in 1939 Bill was married the a daughter and a son.

Maurice Jones​, (son)​ writes: ​When my father ​came home from the war, his life, like ​so ​many others,​ was destroyed​. My mother had ​moved in with another man to whom she had a child. He suffered a lot with ill health but worked until he was 64. I think his generation had a difficult time​,​ with no work in the thirties​,​ then the war​,​ and ​then ​returning ​in the late forties would have been no picnic. I often feel sad that I did not give him the support maybe I could have done but I was only 9 years old and my mother had disappeared​. Life sometimes is not very fair on people like my dad. I kept ​in ​contact with him until he died and we got on well. Your blog opened up many memories​.​ I am 81 next month and my life has been relatively easy in comparison to my dad.

After the war Bill lived in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and worked for the Harrogate Council at the Sun Pavilion and the Lounge preparing for events. He re-married and had two more sons.

Bill died in the General Hospital at Harrogate in August 1987. He was 75.


Maurice added a note: He was also on the Indefatigable training ship in Liverpool when he was a boy of around 12 years old, it was sponsored by Bibby Line to provide crews for its ships. I do not know what his experience was but when I joined the Merchant Navy when I was 16 he did not want me to go. I think he had a difficult life but he was proud of his children would not accept charity and was fairly left wing in his politics, understandable with his life experience, I think he saw me as somewhat to the right partly because I was a manager in my work and I thought some of Margaret Thatchers achievements were to be applauded, not the view of my Dad.