Fred Jones was born in Openshaw in June 1894. His father, Arthur Jones, was a plumber and married Emily Rogers on 29 May, 1880. In 1901 Fred was six years old and living in Openshaw with his parents and siblings Bertha, Eva and Arthur.
By 1911 Fred was at school and living with his parents in Droylsden, his older sisters and brother having left home. He studied at University in London and Manchester and initially took a position as assistant master at Birley Street School, Manchester later becoming an assistant master at the West End Council School in Ashton-under-Lyne. He was getting ready to take his final University exams when war broke out.
Private 1551 Fred Jones joined the 9th Battalion Manchester Regiment on December 15, 1913 when he was 19 years and six months old. He passed a class of Instruction for promotion on April 11, 1914 and was subsequently promoted to Corporal on May 14, 1914. He was promoted to Sergeant on August 4, 1914 when the 1/9th were mobilised. On leaving Bury with the Battalion in September for Egypt he was still officially a Sergeant but he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and gazetted on September 30, 1914 a week after the battalion’s arrival in Egypt.
He served with the Battalion in Egypt throughout their training and preparations for action and subsequently landed with the 1/9th in Gallipoli on May 9, 1915.
Cpl. 243 Thomas Valentine, a 26 year veteran of the 9th Manchesters, stated that he was stood behind Lt. Jones in shrapnel gully. He was at the top of the gully talking to two other officers when he suddenly fell, one of the officers asked, “have you fell over Jones?”, but when he looked he realised he was dead. He was dead before he hit the floor. We carried him away on a stretcher and buried him in the gully.
Second Lieutenant Fred Jones was killed in action on May 24, 1915. He is buried in the Redoubt Cemetery, Helles and commemorated on the Ashton-Under-Lyne Civic Memorial.