At the age of 41, Evan Jones enlisted in “Newcastle’s Own” 35th Battalion of the 3rd Division of the Australian Infantry Force that was formed to support Britain in the First World War. This was in December 1915. After training in Australia, he left for England aboard the “Benalla” on the 12th May the following year, arriving in Plymouth on the 9th December 1916. There he undertook further training before embarking for France on the 16th January 1917.
While waiting to play his part in the war, Evan was stationed at the British camp at Étaples which from all accounts at the time was a very unpleasant experience. The drawing above, by an Australian artist Iso Rae, depicts the Anzacs arriving into the camp. (Details: Iso Rae, Troops arriving at ANZAC Camp (June 1916, pastel on grey paper, 50 x 65 cm, AWM ART 19601)).
WWI poet Wilfred Owen described the camp in the following way:
A vast, dreadful encampment. It seemed neither France nor England, but a kind of paddock where the beasts are kept a few days before the shambles … Chiefly I thought of the very strange look on all the faces in that camp; an incomprehensible look, which a man will never see in England; nor can it be seen in any battle, but only in Étaples. It was not despair, or terror, it was more terrible than terror, for it was a blindfold look, and without expression, like a dead rabbit’s.
The 35th Battalion had a quiet beginning to its participation in the war, due largely to the terrible winter conditions in Europe at the time they arrived in France. It was eventually moved into the Ypres region of Belgium in the middle of the year. It saw its first major engagement at the Battle for Messines on the 7th June. On this very day Evan was injured (gas exposure) and he was immediately transferred to hospital.
He played no further active part in the war, being transferred back to Melbourne by ship and thence by train to Sydney, arriving there in October 2017. He was discharged from the army as unfit due to his age.