WW1 1914-15 Trio & Memorial Medal Plaque Group To Able Seaman Samuel Lloyd Jones, Drake Battalion Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

1914-15 Star, British war & Victory Medals
W-Z 1500 S L Jones, A.B. R.N.V.R
Memorial Plaque Samuel Lloyd Jones
Drill hole at top centre of plaque
Able Seaman Samuel Lloyd Jones,
Service Number: Wales Z/1500
Drake Bn. R.N. Div., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Died on 05 January 1916
Remembered with Honour
Plymouth Naval Memorial and also listed on Memorial in Pontlottyn St Tyfaelog Church Wales
Samuel Lloyd Jones, of 20 Trewarde Street, Rhymney, enlisted 29th June 1915 and joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was the son of Mrs. Mary Ann Jones, 14 Union Street, Pontlottyn and the late David Jones formerly of 87 Plantation Street.
Able Seaman Jones served with the Royal Naval Division attached to 5th Battalion, and was drafted to 3rd Reserve Battalion at Blandford. On 26th October, he was drafted to Drake Battalion, M.E.F.(Mediterranean Expeditionary Force) at Gallipoli. On 5th December 1915 he reported to 1st Field Ambulance RND with pains in chest, and was transferred to 18th Stationary Hospital at Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos, with an undiagnosed ailment. Samuel was invalided to UK on the hospital ship “Britannic”. The ship’s log records that it departed Mudros on 3rd January 1916, bound for Southampton. An entry in his service states “accidently drowned (lost overboard) dated 6 Jan 1916. Gibraltar”.
The ship’s log reads as follows: 5.1.16 At Sea: Evidence given at Court of Inquiry held at 3 pm on board shows that No. Z 1500 S. Jones AB Drake Bn. R.N.D. jumped overboard about 6.00 am, and the court found that “It is reasonable to assume that he is dead.” Signed: Charles A. Bartlett (Master); H.S. Anderson (Lieut. Col., S. M. Officer Commanding Troops on Board)
In peacetime the vessel would have been stopped in order to attempt a rescue or retrieval of the body, but in a war zone “Britannic” had to keep going so as not to endanger the ship and the 3,300 casualties on board. The log gives the position of the apparent suicide as 37.10 N, 11.25 E. – a location somewhere in the strait between Sicily and Tunisia. “Britannic” made port at Southampton on 9th January 1916.
With copy of memorial scroll

Code: 56859