Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Chief Constable W. B. Jones, Ramsgate Constabulary, late Grantham Constabulary

Coronation 1911, County and Borough Police (W. B. Jones, Chief Constable. Ramsgate.); Grantham Constabulary, Diamond Jubilee Medal, V.R., silver (W. B. Jones, Chief Constable. 1897.) good very fine and better (2) £120-£160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals - The Property of a Gentleman.

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William Benjamin Jones was born in Upper Llanvrechva, Monmouthshire, around 1867. The Western Mail of 23 January 1899, notes:

‘Mr. W. B. Jones, who has recently been appointed Chief-Constable of Ramsgate, is a native of Monmouthshire, and at one time was engaged in journalistic work on behalf of the “Western Mail”. Born in 1857 [sic], he was educated, primarily, at a well-known public school at his birthplace, and at the age of ten was fortunate enough to come under the tutelage of the Rev. D. Thomas, the principal master in classics and mathematics at the Baptist College. Developing a strong liking for police work, and a shorthand clerk being required in the Chief Constable’s office in the city of York, Mr. Jones was selected to fill the vacancy. During his career in the ancient city, he occasionally assisted in the work of the detective department, and in October, 1897, he had the gratification of being one of the selected candidates for the office of Chief Constable of the city. After twelve months at York, he was appointed Sergeant and chief clerk in the Gravesend police force, and was quickly promoted to the rank of inspector. Upon leaving Gravesend to become the Chief Constable of Grantham he was the recipient of some valuable presents.’

Furnished with an impressive bronze clock, Jones was later named by the East Kent Times and Mail as the recipient of a silver medal ‘for the services rendered by the Chief Constable and the police during the Diamond Jubilee festivities’. The following year, Jones was unanimously selected from amongst 80 applicants for the position of Chief Constable of the borough of Ramsgate at a rate of £250 per annum. He retired from the position in July 1916 and relocated with his wife to Paignton in Devon.