SOLDIER AT FIFTEEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 516, 20 November 1928, Page 16

SOLDIER AT FIFTEEN

ONE OF VON TEMPSKY’S VOLUNTEERS WANGANUI VETERAN DEAD (Special to THE SUN) WANGANUI, To-day. A son of one of the New Zealand Land Company’s (Edward Gibbon Wakefield) pioneer settlers, who left England in 1839, Mr. Joseph W. Jones, whose death has occurred at the age of 81, had a most adventurous career. At the age of 15 he enrolled as a member of the Wanganui Volunteers, when Wanganui was threatened by rebel natives. Later he transferred to the mounted corps, the Prince of Wales Company, and afterwards joined the Lancers. He carried dispatches between Wanganui and Patea, and between Wanganui and Wellington asking for reinforcements when the natives were close to Wanganui, and when settlers in outlying districts had been ordered to take refuge in the town. The late Mr. Jones afterwards volunteered for service under Major Von Tempsky, and continued in his service in the Taranaki campaign, where Von Tempsky was killed in the memorable assault on the Te Nguto.-o-te-Manu redoubt?

When peace was restored, Mr. Jones sought fresh adventure on the goldfields of the West Coast of the South Island. Later he found his way to* Canterbury, and returning to Wanganui marired the daughter of SergeantMajor Craig He is survived by his widow and an only daughter (Mrs. Thomson, the wife of Dr. Thomson, of Coogee, Sydney), who is on her way to Wanganui on the Marama, which arrived at Auckland to-day from Sydney.

The late Mr. Jones, who was a brother of Mr. D. Jones (Springvale) and Mr. F. Webb Jones, editor of the Wanganui “Herald,” was buried with military honours yesterday afternoon in the Aramoho Cemetery.