JONES, Rowland John
| Service Number: | 6760 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 September 1916, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Milawa, Victoria, 1893 |
| Home Town: | Moyhu, Wangaratta, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Natural causes, Moyhu, Victoria, 1987 |
| Cemetery: |
Milawa Cemetery, Victoria |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Sep 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 6760, Melbourne, Victoria | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Oct 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 6760, 5th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Oct 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 6760, 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ulysses, Melbourne | |
| 13 Oct 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 6760, 5th Infantry Battalion |
The valiant know
In what many literary critics consider to be Australia’s rival to Erich Maria Lemarque’s “All quite on the Western Front”, Frederic Manning paraphrased William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act II, Scene II for the title of his book (see below), “The middle parts of fortune (1929).” In many ways, the book and its title summarise the significant contribution made by privates such as Rowley Jones and all the rest who fought valiantly but were never singled out for distinction. The satisfactory completion of WWI from the Allies perspective would not have been possible without their roles both during the war and their enduring of the consequences of that contribution after the war was finished.
William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, (Act II, Scene II).
Hamlet: My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both? Rosencrantz: As the indifferent children of the earth. Guildenstern: Happy, in that we are not overhappy. On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button. Hamlet: Nor the soles of her shoes? Rosencrantz: Neither, my lord. Hamlet: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors? Guildenstern: Faith, her privates we. Hamlet: In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true. She is a strumpet. What news? Rosencrantz: None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest. Hamlet: Then is doomsday near?…..
Submitted 20 June 2017 by Evan Evans
Biography contributed by Evan Evans
Rowley Jones (Rowland John Jones, Pte. 5th Battalion, 1893-1987) was a respected senior gentleman of the district when I was a child. He was married after the war but was never able to have children. His nephew David Jones now owns his property "Gumdale" which is near the corner of Boggy Creek Rd and Top Plain Rd. Before Rowley died, my father David Evans, collected some reminiscences from Rowley that reside in the Evans family archives, Redcamp, Moyhu. One particular memory from WWI was that he saw my great uncle, Capt Gerald Evans MC, MiD (8th Battalion) wounded on the Menin Rd, Belgium on 20th September 1917. His WWI diary was transcribed by Bronwyn Couzens in 2010. A few pages of this transcript are attached to this memorial post.
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