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Shone, Colin

Colin & Hedley Shone are brothers and their family put forward their names to be added to the Hawarden War Memorial, but Colin died before the WW2 broke out, therefore his name is not on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database, as their criteria is that they are responsible for the commemoration of service personnel who died between 3 September 1939 and 31 December 1947.

Colin and Hedley were the sons of Walter & Jessie Shone, (nee Davies) who had married in the June Quarter of 1905 in a Civil Ceremony (Flintshire (Mold) HAW/02/E81).   I believe the first of their sons, Walter, Bapt. 4th Feb.1909, Born 21st Aug 1905 s/o Walter & Jessie SHONE (nee DAVIES), Sunny Side, Bunker’s Hill, Miner

James Leonard was born on the 2nd June 1910, he was baptised on the 13th October 1910, Their address was Liverpool Road, Buckley and Walter was a Collier.

Both Colin and Clifford were baptised the same day, the 23rd September 1915, Colin and Clifford sons of Walter & Jessie SHONE, (nee DAVIES), 1, Ewloe Place, Coal Miner, all at St. Mathew’s Church.Buckley.

I believe that Clifford had been born in the December quarter of 1912, and on the Free BMD’s website the mother’s maiden name was ROBERTS, so I wrote to the Superintendent Registrar and asked them whether that was correct, they replied that yes the name was ROBERTS, but the parent’s were Walter and Jessie Shone, so I think it was a clerical error. (Hawarden Vol.  11b Page 370).

I believe that sadly Walter died in the December quarter of 1919, age 38 years, (Flintshire (Mold) HAW/12A/65) so Jessie was left to bring up the boys, the youngest, Hedley, age 1 year old.

I find the family on the 1921 census, living at 1, Ewloe Place, Buckley, Hawarden, Flintshire.   Jessie Shone was now aged 39 years and 10 months old and doing ‘Home Duties.’   Walter Shone, her son, was 15 years and 11 months old and was working as an Underground Labourer at George Watkinson Ltd., Colliery.  Both had been born in Ewloe, Flintshire.   The rest of the children, all born in Buckley, were Leonard Shone, 11 years and 1 month old, Clifford Shone, 9 years and 11 months old, Collin (sic) Shone, 7 years and 2 months old and Hedley Shone, 2 years and 8 months old.

Before the National Registers were taken on the 29th of September 1939, Colin had already been in the Army, and had indeed died on the 13th of July 1939, but there is confusion around which Regiment he was in, but the newspaper cutting recording his brother Hedley’s death in 1940, states that both Colin and Hedley were in the R.A.M.C. and not in the Cheshire Regiment as on the Buckley, flintshirewarmemorial.com website, although he could very well have been first in the Cheshire Regiment and then transferred into the R.A.M.C.

The next time we see Jessie, she is seen living at 15 Oakfield Road, Hawarden, Flintshire on the 1939 National Register taken on the 29th of September 1939.   This source gives us her birth date of the 25th of September 1880 and as most women who do not have a job, especially married women, she is said to be doing “Unpaid Domestic Duties,” although in this case Jessie is widowed.  In the household is Clifford Shone, born on the 29th of August 1912 and was a Packer Annealing in the Dipped Sheet Mills (Probably John Summer’s & Sons) and he is single although he does marry in the December quarter of 1939 to Hannah Hughes in St. Mary’s Church, Mold. (Flintshire (Mold) C16/7/59).  Hedley, another of Colin’s brothers, is shown on this source, so he mustn’t have enlisted or been conscripted at that moment.   Hedley’s date of birth is shown as the 21st of November 1917 and he was a Painter in the Aircraft Factory and single.

The 1939 National Register also shows another of Colin’s brothers, Walter*, living at 4 Nant Mawr Road, Buckley, Flintshire.   His birthday is shown as the 21st of August 1905 and he was a Steelworks Labourer, his wife Ethel’s birthday was the 13th of April 1906 and again as with Jessie, she is shown as doing “Unpaid Domestic Duties.”   There is a child, Hazel Shone, born on the 1st of October 1932 at school and a redacted or closed record, so I do not know who that might be.

*Walter married Ethel Connah in the March quarter of 1929 in a Civil marriage at Hawarden (Flintshire (Mold) HAW/10/81).

Another brother James Leonard is also seen on the 1939 National Register living at Nant Cottage Nant Mawr, Buckley, Flintshire.   James Leonard’s birthday was the 2nd of June 1910 and he was a General Labourer, his wife Violet was born on the 17th of November 1906 and again doing “Unpaid Domestic Duties.”

According to the Shone Family Tree pb51_1 on Acestry.co.uk Colin is said to have died on the 13th of July 1939 in Suakuin Margibi Liberia.   But on the Newspaper cutting from the Chester Chronicle Sat. 14th of November 1942 – Colin is said to have died in Sudan, East Africa.   The Liverpool Evening Express dated the 26th of Nov. 1940, when both Hedley & Colin are mentioned, state that they were both in the Royal Army Medical Corps.    This is confirmed by the Casualty List (Page 12) in the case of Hedley.

I tend to think that Liberia was not where Colin was stationed in 1939.

Liberia in World War II – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia_in_World_War_II

Liberia did not become militarily involved in World War II until January 1944, with the election of William Tubman, at which time the country declared war on Germany and Japan. However, even before the start of Liberia’s official military involvement, the nation participated in the war for two years under the terms of a Defense Agreement with the United States. Apart from Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) and the Belgian Congo, Liberia possessed one of the few remaining sources of rubber for the Allies. To guarantee a steady supply of rubber from the world’s largest rubber plantation, operated at Harbel by the Firestone Company since 1926, the US government built roads throughout the country, created an international airport (known as Robertsfield Airport), and transformed the capital, Monrovia, by building a deep water port (the Freeport of Monrovia).   In 1944, with its entry into the war, Liberia adopted the US dollar and became one of only four countries in Africa to join the newly formed United Nations.

I have found that the R.A.M.C. played a major role in Sudan, as they did with all Army Military activities as can be seen with the document below:-

I have downloaded a PDF document “In command of No. 16 British General Hospital at Gebeit in the Sudan” https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b28715548#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.5916%2C-0.0686%2C2.1833%2C1.3714,that might help build a picture for you to see where and the circumstances that Colin experienced in SUAKIN, if indeed this was the place that Colin was posted.   It was about an Officer from November 1940 – May 1941.  SUAKIN is mentioned on pages 145 / 147 / 210 and 218 which, I think, on the 7th February mentions the “Late Cheshire Battalion” at SUAKIN.  Also pages 220 / 222 – where GEBEIT is mentioned, page 224 / 244 / 248 – where  SUAKIN is described as a  “Wonderfully attractive place,” and Page 250.   This was a Diary written by an Officer of the R.A.M.C. and therefore gives his time in the Sudan from his perspective, nonetheless, it is quite a vivid picture of the area and just after Colin died, but things would have been very much the same and also the pages are not in date order, so it is sometimes hard to follow.   I cannot add it to Colin’s page, but I will send it to anyone who wants to read it, if you cannot download it.

I have also downloaded 2 PDF’s one from the Wellcome Library about Suakin, one “5 Years in the Sudan by Capt. T.W. DAVIDSON R.A.M.C.” dated 1930 and the other one, just out of interest “Three sketch maps of British military operations at Suakin”  dated 1885, both about the R.A.M.C.

 https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/suakin

This may be of interest, as they are about the territory that Colin died in.:-

https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19173210#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.1917%2C-0.0434%2C1.3834%2C0.869 (In Folder)

Three sketch maps of British military operations at Souakim (Suakin, Sudan) “probably made by Surgeon Arthur Charles James Rudd Lundy of the Army Medical Department” Date 1885 (In Folder)

See also  – In command of No. 16 British General Hospital at Gebeit in the Sudan (In Folder).

https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b28715548#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.5916%2C-0.0686%2C2.1833%2C1.3714 (In Folder)

And The Sudan and India – https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b18481073#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.6772%2C-0.0739%2C2.3544%2C1.4789  (In Folder)

If you would like copies then please get in touch with the website.

There is confusion about what Regiment that Colin was in as on Flintshirewarmemorials.com – Private Colin Shone, 1st Btn Cheshire Regiment, July 13, 1939, 25, Suakin, East Africa (in present-day Sudan). Son of Walter and Jessie Shone, Hawarden, formerly of Ewloe Place Buckley.   Colin and brother Hedley were second cousins, once removed of Peter Kelsall (the author of the Buckley page on the website).

But it is logical that the R.A.M.C. would be part or in conjunction with Regiments:-

https://museumofmilitarymedicine.org.uk/about/corps-history/history-of-the-royal-army-medical-corps/

World War Two, 1939-1945

During World War Two technology enabled the RAMC greater access to mechanised land and air transport, allowing specialists and operating teams to get right to the front-line in an increasingly mobile war.

There were major medical developments pioneered by the army, such as the use of penicillin for the first time in the North African campaign and also the development of blood transfusion, which was so crucial in wartime.

Many medical personnel were taken prisoner during the war, as they often remained with the wounded. In the Far East many British and Australian medical personnel were amongst those taken prisoner at the Fall of Singapore in 1941.

1945 onwards (Excerpt from:-

The British Army have been committed to Northern Ireland since 1969, the Falklands War of 1982, the Gulf War 1990-1991, Bosnia and Yugoslavia and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as numerous other peacekeeping and humanitarian operations across the globe. In each instance, the Army has been supported by medical personnel from the RAMC.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Army_Medical_Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps form the Army Medical Services.

Before the Second World War, RAMC recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall, and could enlist up to 30 years of age. They initially enlisted for seven years with the colours, and a further five years with the reserve, or three years and nine years. They trained for six months at the RAMC Depot, Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Church Crookham, before proceeding to specialist trade training.[18] The RAMC Depot moved from Church Crookham to Keogh Barracks in Mytchett in 1964.[19]

https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/3307/royal-army-medical-corps

Unit History: Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace. Together with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, the RAMC forms the British Army’s essential Army Medical Services.

 The RAMC does not carry a Regimental Colour or Queen’s Colour, although it has a Regimental Flag. Nor does it have battle honours, as elements of the corps have been present in almost every single war the army has fought. Because it is not a fighting arm, under the Geneva Conventions, members of the RAMC may only use their weapons for self-defence. For this reason, there are two traditions that the RAMC perform when on parade:

 Officers do not draw their swords – instead they hold their scabbard with their left hand while saluting with their right.

 Other Ranks do not fix bayonets.

 Unlike medical officers in some other countries, medical officers in the RAMC (and the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force) do not use the “Dr” prefix, in parentheses or otherwise, but only their rank, although they may be addressed informally as “Doctor”.

Also read https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/61/a2064061.shtml

 And https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/docs-services-royal-army-medical-corps/

So it seems that Colin was to find himself in the Sudan and although I cannot find out what happened, his family could go on line and apply to the https://www.ctp.org.uk/military-disclosures-addresses – this is the address for the Army:-

Army

Disclosures 1 (MP 520)

Army Personnel Centre

Kentigern House

65 Brown Street

Glasgow

G2 8EX  -Tel: 0345 600 9663

I managed to find a newspaper notice in the “Roll of Honour” column for Hedley and “In Memorium” for Walter and Colin, although the year was wrong.:-

Chester Chronicle Sat. 14th November 1942 – Colin, Hedley & Walter

ROLL OF HONOUR.

SHONE. —Treasured birthday memories (Nov. 17, 1942) my beloved son, Hedley, who passed away Oct. 25, 1940, in Hospital in Egypt.—Mother, 15. Oakfield-road. Hawarden.

And –  In Memorium

SHONE. —In loving memory my dear husband, Walter, who passed away Nov. 28, 1919. —From his loving wife Jessie, 15, Oakfield-road, Hawarden.

SHONE. —Sweet memories my beloved son. Colin who passed away July 13. 1940*, in Sudan, East Africa. —Mother. 15, Oakfield-road, Hawarden.

*(sic)

However, his name was put forward, as was Hedley’s name, to the committee to be included on the Hawarden WW2 War Memorial so they would be remembered for perpetuity, so they were very much loved by their family.


Learn more about the other soldiers on the Hawarden Memorial

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