Claude Jones, a promising cyclist, enlists

I began this story with very little information. From a newspaper article in the Brunswick and Coburg Leader on 23 June 1916, I knew that C. Jones of the Coburg Cycling Club had enlisted in July 1915 and that he had been wounded in late May 1916:

C. Jones, a very popular member of the club, has, we are sorry to learn, received gun wounds in the head in a night encounter on May 30th 1916. He enlisted in July last and went into camp on French day (July 14th).

But who was C. Jones and how was I going to track down his story? Jones is such a common surname that I thought I'd never find him. However, I found a further lead in another article in the Brunswick and Coburg Leader, published on 4 August 1916 under the headline 'Coburg Cycling Club':

Recently we announced that Pte C. Jones, our great champion, had been 'seriously wounded' receiving a bullet in the head. We are now pleased to report that he has been through a successful operation and is on the road to recovery. He will be remembered as one of our foremost road and track champions, representing the club in Nella Shields and road premierships, gaining 2nd place in the 25-mile premiership, and other races too numerous to mention. His cheerful, willing disposition, his good nature, gained for him many friends in the ranks, as it did in the Coburg Cycling Club. He enlisted in July 1915, in company with J. Sheppard and W. Cooper, who, we are pleased to report, are in the best of health.

 So now I knew that he enlisted with J. Sheppard and W. Cooper, also members of CCC.

Before long I had the information I needed: C. Jones was 3821 Pte Claude Jones, 6th Battalion, 12th Reinforcements. He enlisted on 7 July 1915 and was a 21 year old engine driver who lived in Colebrook Street, Brunswick. He was dangerously wounded in France at the end of May 1916 and sent to England.

From Claude Jones's service record. Courtesy National Archives of Australia.

And so ended Claude Jones's war. He was repatriated to Australia in 1917 and it was not long before the newspapers reported that that he was hoping to race again:

Winner, 2 May 1917

However, in August 1918, Claude suffered another health setback. The admission register of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Admissions Register shows that Claude Jones, 26, a soldier of 25 Colebrook Street, Brunswick was admitted on 16 August 1918 with diptheria. He was declared cured after 18 days and discharged on 2 September 1918. He'd been sent by Captain Graham of No.16 AGH, Mont Park.

He married Margaret Teresa Eginton in 1921, the same year in which he suffered yet another health setback - he was knocked off a ladder by a falling beam while working at the paper mills in Fairfield and was taken to hospital with a fractured skull.

It's not surprising then that Claude Jones is not mentioned in the main sporting newspapers - Winner and the Sporting Globe - after his return from the war.

He lived locally (in Gordon Street, Coburg) until the 1950s when he and his wife moved to Moorabbin. 

Amazingly, Claude Jones lived until 1981. He was 89 years old when he died, having survived two major head traumas and a serious infectious disease in his early adulthood. 

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I've been unable to find an image of Claude Jones, but I can add a little information about the Nella Shield - the second article I quoted here tells us that Claude represented the Coburg Cycling Club in the Nella Shield.

Thanks to Lenore Frost, whose grandfather Thomas Eynon was a CCC rider and also represented the Club in Nella Shield races, I know that The Nella Shield competition commenced in 1908 and was sponsored by a businessman named Allen (Nella is Allen backwards). By the 1921 cycling season, two clubs had won the shield twice - Coburg and Prahran-South Yarra.

Coburg's Nella Shield team, 1911. Image courtesy Lenore Frost.

In this photograph, Lenore's grandfather Thomas Eynon is sitting on the left and she believes that William Thomson, another Club member who served in World War One, is the rider standing on the right. That leaves four team members to identify. I wonder if one of them is Claude Jones?