Madam,
North Wales Bell Ringers will be holding a special event at St John’s, Porthmadog, on Saturday, 3 September, to commemorate the life of bell ringer Evan John Jones.
Evan John Jones was a bell ringer at St John’s. His address is given as 7 Railway Place, Porthmadog, in the Bell Tower record and Ty Eiddew, Tremadoc, in another record at St John’s. He was listed as “missing” in France while on active service in the Great War as a private with 101 Company of the Yorkshire Machine Gun Corps.
His fellow bell ringers in Porthmadog rang in his memory on 3 September 1916. Peter Furniss of the North Wales Association of Change Bell Ringers also tells us that shortly after the end of the First World War, the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers gathered together the names of all known bell ringers who had been killed in the war. Their names were then all written up in a beautifully illustrated set of books called the Rolls of Honour.
These are kept in a display cabinet in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. They are looked after by a member of the Central Council, Alan Regin, who is Steward of the Rolls.
As part of the commemoration of the centenary of the war, every month he publishes in The Ringing World a list of names of the ringers, along with brief biographical details, known to have been killed 100 years ago that month.
Peter also suggests that their sacrifice should be remembered with specially organised ringing.
Mercifully, The North Wales Association did not lose too many members in the war. From memory, it was five or six. Thus far the deaths of all have been commemorated by quarter peals or full peals rung by members of the Association.
North Wales bell ringers will commemorate this event by ringing at St John’s from 2.30pm on Saturday. If any of your readers would like to ring with us, please contact me on 01766 514396.
Yours etc,
John Bowers, South Snowdon Wharf, Porthmadog.
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