Gilbert Lloyd Sinnett-Jones was born in St George’s, Glamorgan on 19 January 1893.
The 1911 Census tells us that the family lived at the Vicarage, Mountain Ash, Glamorgan. The head of the family was the Reverend James Sinnett-Jones aged 49, who was born in Llanrhystid, Aberystwyth on 18 June 1862. He had been educated at Friars School, Bangor and Christ College, Brecon, before being accepted into Peterhouse College, Cambridge in March 1883, where he obtained a BA in 1886 and an MA in 1891. His wife was Catherine Jane Jones and they had two daughters – Nellie Myfanwy Sinnett-Jones aged 19, a Student and Elizabeth Sybil Margaret Sinnett-Jones aged 16. Also living at the Vicarage at that time was Margaret May Jones aged 33, a Schoolmistress (who was the Rev Sinnett Jones’s Niece) and Annie Powell aged 23, who was employed as a Servant.
There were also two sons – Gilbert Lloyd Sinnett-Jones aged 18, who appeared in the 1911 Census as a boarder at Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire and his brother James Victor Sinnett-Jones aged 13, who also appeared in the 1911 Census as being a boarder at Cathedral School, Llandaff, Cardiff.
During 1914 the family moved from South Wales to North Wales where the Reverend James Sinnett-Jones had been appointed as Rector of St. Michaels Church, Caerwys, Flintshire.
On 16 December 1914 whilst an Undergraduate at St. John’s College, Oxford, Gilbert Lloyd Sinnett-Jones was commissioned as a Lieutenant with the 8th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was later promoted to Captain. Gilbert was wounded during the landings at Sulva Bay, Gallipoli from which he recovered, but was later killed in action on 9 April 1916, during the Battle of Kut Al Amara, which took place some 100 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.
His brother Lieutenant James Victor Sinnett-Jones and his brother-in-law Captain Frank Emlyn Williams MC were both killed during the First World War and their names are also inscribed on the Caerwys War Memorial and the North Wales Heroes Memorial Arch, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales.
The National Probate Calendar for 1919 states that Gilbert on his death had bequeathed the sum of £285. 5s 3d to his father.
The Reverend James Sinnett-Jones died on 15 December 1935 in Caerwys and Catherine Jane Jones died on 20 September 1934 in Bishopton, Swansea. She left the sum of £12,014. 19s 3d to her daughter Elizabeth.
There is a window in the South Wall of the Parish Church Caerwys, by the pulpit representing ‘the Magnificat’ which was given in the Reverend James Sinnett-Jones’s memory. The Reredos (Ornamental screen at the back of the alter) in Caerwys Parish Church was given by the Reverend James Sinnett-Jones in memory of his two sons.
It would appear that Elizabeth Sybil Margaret Williams (nee Sinnett-Jones) re-married following her husband’s death to Andrew Fulton Rankin.
Gilbert Lloyd Sinnett-Jones is also commemorated on the War Memorial in the Canterbury Quadrangle of St. John’s College, Oxford.
There is a Flintshire Roll of Honour card for Gilbert Lloyd Sinnett-Jones at the County Archives Office, Hawarden which was completed on 17 November 1919 by his father.
