Lieutenant (later Captain) Clarence Edward Williamson-Jones DFC : 1st Bn. Manchester Regiment, RFC & RAF
This officer was commissioned on 20th March 1915 into the 1st Manchesters and had a distinguished military career serving not only in the Manchesters, but on operational flying duties with both the RFC and RAF. He continued to serve in the RAF after the Great War and beyond, reaching the rank of Group Captain. He died in 1977.
He can be traced as Cadet No.1410 serving with the Artists' Rifles early in the Great War and following his commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant joining his battalion in the Salient shortly before the Second Battle of Ypres, a battle which commenced on the 21st April 1915. The 1st Manchesters were part of the Jullundur Brigade of the Lahore Division, taking up positions on the 26th April with their right flank on a farm west of Wieltje, the objective being the enemy trenches about 1000 yards north of them. Even on their way to the Start Line, the Brigade met severe enemy fire as they marched past the moat to the south of Ypres town, the 40th Pathans, for instance, suffering some 22 casualties.
The attack commenced at 1.20.p.m. being covered by the British artillery bombardment, but nevertheless the advancing troops met enemy fire of every kind and casualties were heavy, in the case of No. 1 Company four officers, including Williamson-Jones being wounded. The Manchesters' splendid reputation during the battle had been confirmed, but the cost to the battalion was heavy, for total casualties amounted to the death of the battalion CO - Lt. Col. Hitchins - and 15 men, 217 All Ranks wounded and 56 men missing. (It was in this battle that Acting Corporal Issy Smith won his Victoria Cross).
As regards Williamson-Jones, his military future was to lie with the Royal Flying Corps and later with the Royal Air Force.
Continuing research revealed a reference to him flying a contact patrol on the opening day of the Battle of Messines (7th June 1917), when operating with a RE8 type aircraft of No. 6 Squadron RFC and being wounded in the leg. The role of the RFC in that battle is praised, especially in connection with contact patrolling and Counter-Battery work.
By May 1918 Williamson-Jones was serving with No. 59 Squadron RAF. On the second day of that month he was returning to base after a patrol involving photographic work, flying a RE8 machine No. C5048 with Acting Lieutenant B. Instone as Observer. It appears that Williamson-Jones' final approach to the airfield was misjudged and the normal remedy of the application of an appropriate amount of "throttle" failed as the engine "cut out".
The aircraft therefore crashed short of the aerodrome "nose down" in a trench, neither Lt. Williamson-Jones nor his Observer suffering injury.
PhilipG.
