Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An Albert Medal Second Class for Land and Carnegie Hero Fund Watch awarded to Mr. J. C. Jones, a miner from Blackwood, Monmouthshire, for his gallantry in saving the life of a 15-year-old boy who had fallen onto the tracks at Pontypool Road Railway Station on 13 May 1913 - ‘with an express train approaching at great speed, I jumped down onto the line and seized the boy, pulled him on top of me, and pressed myself as tightly as I could against the wall. The express went by us like a flash, with the piston of the engine touching me as it went past’

Albert Medal, 2nd Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life on Land, bronze and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ‘Presented by His Majesty to John Jones for gallantry in saving life at Pontypool Road Railway Station on the 13th May 1913.’, in embossed case of issue; together with a Carnegie Hero Trust Fund silver presentation pocket watch, the outside case engraved ‘CHTF’, the inside inscribed ‘Presented by the Trustees of the Carnegie Hero Fund to John Cynon Jones, Blckwood, Mon., for Heroism in Saving Life , 13 May 1913’, good very fine (2) £4,600-£5,500

A.M. London Gazette 24 February 1914:
‘As a passenger train, travelling about seven [sic - presumably seventy] miles an hour, was entering Pontypool Road Railway Station, on 13 May 1913, a boy of fifteen fell from the platform on to the rails, when the train was only twenty yards away. John Jones, a miner, of Blackwood, Monmouthshire, who was waiting on the platform, at once jumped down, and, as there was not time to lift the boy on to the platform, lay down between the rails and the platform and held the boy on his breast until the train had passed. Neither was injured, but it is evident that the boy owes his life to the courage and presence of mind displayed by Jones.’

A contemporary newspaper article gives the recipient’s own account:
‘I went to Pontypool on Whit Tuesday some time after two o’clock and had only just got onto the crowded platform when I saw a boy fall over onto the line. The express train was coming round the bend at a great speed. There was no time for thought; the train was only about 20 yards away. I jumped down onto the line and seized the boy, who was rather heavy for me. I quickly realised that the oncoming train was too near for me to get across with the boy, and I pulled him towards me, lay down full length on the tubes running against the wall of the platform carrying the signal wires, pulled the boy on top of me, and pressed myself as tightly as I could against the wall. The express went by us like a flash. The piston of the engine touched me as it went by, but after the engine passed there was a little more room, but even then the footboards were very close. After the danger was over I got up and lifted the boy onto the platform; the people on the platform seemed too horrified to help us up. I did not realise the danger whilst I was in the act of saving the boy. I never felt so cool in my life. If I had lost my head for a moment, or attempted to drag the boy across the metals to the other side we would, no doubt, both have been cut to pieces.’

The 15-year-old boy saved by Mr. Jones was called Percy Gwilts, living at Blackwood. Jones continued:
‘The only injury he received was a bruise on the arm by falling off the platform onto the rails. The boy told me afterwards that the only thing he remembered was the hissing of the engine as it dashed by him. Everything went dark to him. He was lost to the world.’

John Cynon Jones, a 28-year-old miner at the Oakdale Colliery, was awarded the Albert Medal Second Class for the above act of gallantry, and was invested with his medal by H.M. King George V at Buckingham Palace on 12 February 1914 (as was often the case for civilian Gallantry awards, the investiture occurred before the award was officially announced in the London Gazette). He was also awarded a silver watch with an inscription by the Carnegie Hero Trust Fund (case no. 1531).

Jones subsequently served with the 2/1 Glamorgan Yeomanry during the Great War on the Western Front from 31 May 1916, and was injured when a wall that he was sheltering behind collapsed from shell fire in late August 1916. Repatriated home and admitted to hospital on 19 September 1916, he transferred to the Reserve on 20 September 1918.

Sold with copied research, including a photographic image of the recipient.