Barbara Jones talking about her father, Watkin Evan Jones, who served in the First World War.

Description

Watkin Evan Jones, born 26 June 1896, Lampeter.

His father was a coal merchant at station yard Lampeter, who died at the age of 40 in 1900 leaving Watkin fatherless at the age of 4. When 15 years of age he joined traineeship with the HMS Conway, Liverpool, staying for 2 years and passing as a cadet. He joined the sailing ship Milverton on which he served for 2-5years.
Left Liverpool on the 29th of April, 1914 for Sydney on the Milverton and stayed on till August 1915, he didn’t hear war had broken out till 4-5month at the end of that trip.

After returning to Liverpool he joined the naval reserve and was stationed at Devonport, Plymouth for training. He remained there from September to October and then assigned to the SS Laurentic which was stationed in Calcutta. It took 6 weeks and two ships to join her.
January, 1916 on the SS Laurentic patrolling South China Seas, tasked with stopping and searching any shipping and arresting any German or Austrian nationals, sympathisers and gun runners. Main threats were German U-boats.

Whilst in Rangoon and Penang on shore leave visiting a temple came across Tom Williams, Mill Street Lampeter who remained a lifelong friend.

February 1916. Whilst on patrol they were transporting 26 male Germans, 8 Austrian 2 Turk prisoners that were found hiding on an American ship. The Americans were not happy with the stop / search of an American ship and this caused an international incident.

March, 1916. Hong Kong on shore leave where he was involved in a motoring accident following hiring a motorbike with a friend.

July, 1916 – SS Laurentic tasked with the transportation of gold bullion. After some shore leave, set sail for Simon’s town, south Africa to take on a consignment of gold bullion and then sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia with the cargo as payment to the Canadian and American governments for munitions. Ship was sent to patrol Nantucket, the gateway to New York, where on one occasion 9 ships were sunk by U53 U-boat. They were tasked with intercepting the radar ship SMS Möwe but were unable to due to a hurricane.

November, 1916. Sent to Bermuda for another consignment of gold bullion, 1321 boxes for delivery to Halifax.
December, 1916. Received orders to return home to Liverpool. On the journey a fire broke out in hold no.2. Whilst the relief party was working on getting the men out, Captain Mathias was injured by a falling metal beam; he did not survive from the injuries.

Watkin left the SS Laurentic in December, 2016. Three weeks later the ship struck a mine off the West coast of Ireland; of the 475 crew, 121 were saved. They were carrying a cargo of gold bullion, estimated at worth 5 million pounds. This site is now an official war grave.

From December 1916 to October 1917 he received orders to precede Scapa Flow, Scotland during which he joined the HMS Neptune from 2nd July 1917 to the 15th October 1917. HMS Vanguard was also on patrol in Scapa Flow and on the evening of the 9th of July 1917 was torn apart by an explosion in two of her main magazine holds. Over 700 officers, sailors and marines were lost. HMS Neptune held a service on the 12th July. They never found out the cause of the explosion.

After the war Watkin continued to be at sea, gaining his first mate certificate and working mainly on steam ships between Liverpool and Nova Scotia. He received an eye injury on a visit to America resulting in him having to wear glasses and finishing his time at sea in 1922.

He married a girl from Liverpool and had two children, born in Lampeter then migrated to America in 1926 where they lived in Waukegan, Chicago and worked as an assistant lighthouse keeper on the lakes of Chicago. Due to the depression they moved back to Liverpool in 1931.