George Jones was born on 29th December 1919 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and was the son of John George and Annie Jones (nee MacDonald), of nearby Waterloo. Both his parents were born in England but had emigrated to Canada. They had lived in Liverpool but after his father had lost a leg in The First World War his parents left for Canada marrying in Hamilton in November 1918. After leaving school and college George worked as an usher in the Waterloo Theatre, Waterloo, Ontario. He enlisted into the RCAF on 28th August 1940 in Galt, Ontario for ground duties and served as an airframe mechanic, but may have been working for Galt Aircraft training school at the time of enlistment. Around April 1942 he re-mustered as as aircrew and trained as a navigator being awarded his half-wings on 25th September 1942. On arrival in the UK in early November 1942 he then trained at 10 (O)AFU. He was posted to 23 OTU based at Pershore on 23rd February 1943 and joined Tom Kneale's crew, he remained a fixed member of the crew throughout their final training and operational flying with 426 Squadron. He was appointed to a commission on 29th September 1943.
He had undertaken fifteen operational flights and was on his sixteenth when Lancaster DS837 crashed at Yearsley. He was twenty three years old and was buried with other members of his crew at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
I thank the relation of P/O Jones, Mr Donald Cross for contacting me in 2005 and for the additional information he was able to provide this account. Sadly when the memorial was planned in 2011 Mr Smith and myself attempted to re-establish contact but this was unsuccessful.