People on board

JONES, Herbert Stanton

Herbert Stanton Jones was born in Ashford, Kent in 1889 to Edward Stanton Jones and Mary Ann Holloway or Booth (Holloway was the maiden name of mother on the children’s birth entries but the presumed marriage entry is Booth). Herbert was the third eldest of the six children surviving in 1911, although three others had also been born. Edward was a Printer or a Printer Machinist and the family had lived at Hardinge Road in Ashford, and were in Edinburgh Road by 1911.

In the census of that year Herbert, aged twenty-one, gave his occupation as ‘Law Clerk’. Edward died in late 1917 at the age of sixty-four. According to the limited military records available for Herbert Jones he first enlisted in the 21st Lancers which was in France between June 1916 and August 1917. He transferred to the 3rd Battalion of the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, a Training Unit that remained in the UK. It is not known why he was travelling on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918, but he did not survive the sinking.

Herbert’s body was recovered on the seashore at Muneraig, Borgue near Kirkcudbright in south west Scotland on the 26th of November. He was one of five casualties from the Leinster whose bodies were recovered from the sea in this area. All five were buried in the local St Cuthbert’s Churchyard and a headstone was raised by public subscription. Herbert’s name was also recorded on the family grave in the old Ashford cemetery.