Jones family papers.

Collection

Identifier: MSS Archives-2014/06

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains papers relating to the lives of two members of the Jones family, Albert Henry Jones and Lina Maud Jones, organised into two series.

The first series comprises letters, photographs, postcards, publications, pamphlets and other ephemera created or collected by Albert Jones while a civilian internee in the Ruhleben prison camp near Spandau, Germany during the First World War.

Prior to the war, Ruhleben had been a harness racing track, but from September 1914 began to operate as a detention camp for civilian prisoners of war, first British citizens and then all male subjects of the British empire – with estimates of maximum camp population ranging between 4,000-5,000 (Stibbe, 2003, p.79). The stables were converted into barracks and the horse boxes into stalls for each prisoner. Jones’s address in the camp was Barrack 3, Box 14.

Ruhleben camp was run according to the Geneva Convention. Prisoners were not subject to torture, nor forced to work, and correspondence between them and their families was permitted although regulated by censorship. The prisoners were permitted to administer their own affairs and had their own magazine, library, postal service, ‘tee haus’ and even a casino. They were also permitted to organize their own entertainments, and had choirs, church services, a theatre, lectures, and various sports leagues.

However, reports of internees make it clear that life in the camps was harsh and drab, and the prisoners suffered from the food shortages that befell Germany during the war. The Red Cross supplemented the prisoners with food parcels.

A few prisoners had succeeded in being sent home from the camp on grounds of ill health, but the majority remained interned until 1918 when they began being sent home in batches. On 22 November 1918, the 1500 prisoners who remained – one of which was Albert Jones – were sent by train to Sassnitz, and then by boat to Hull via Copenhagen, arriving in England to cheering crowds (Stibbe, 2003, p.92-93). Albert went from Ripon Camp to stay with his cousin Elizabeth Jones, at 284 High St, Smethwick. This was the same 'Liz' referred to in some of the letters.

A.H. Jones’ papers contain only one item from after the war: a pamphlet transcription of a lecture he gave, Myself, the other fellow, and workas a lecturer in the educational section of the Leeds Psychotherapy Clinic to a meeting of the Association of Gas Salesmen in Leeds (see item 1/18). This item is not dated.

The second series relates to the work of Lina Jones as a missionary in Roviana, Solomon Islands between 1924 and 1950 and includes clippings, photographs and biographical information.

References

Ruhleben Camp: Horrors of Monotony. Undermining mentality. Tom Sullivan interviewed. (1918, March 17). The Auckland Star, p.5.

Ruhleben Prison Camp: Napier man’s experience. Food not fit to eat. (1916, April 25). New Zealand Herald,p.8.

Stibbe, Matthew. (2003). A Community at War: British Civilian Internees at the Ruhleben Camp in Germany, 1914-1918. In Jenny Macleod and Pierre Purseigle (Eds.), Uncovered Fields: Perspectives in First World War Studies. Leiden, NLD: Brill Academic Publishers.

Dates

1911 - 1985

Creator

Jones, Albert H. (Person)
Jones family (Family)

Conditions Governing Access

Not restricted.

Albert Henry Jones (1884-1964)

Albert H. Jones was born in Christchurch in 1884, to Sarah and John Henry Jones. He was the eldest of their five children. His younger sister, Lina Jones, whose papers are held with Albert’s, was born in 1890.

Albert taught at the Technical School in Christchurch, prior to traveling to Germany to pursue graduate studies in Commerce (Out of Ruhleben...,1919). He was teaching in Hamburg when World War I broke out and on February 6, 1915, was interned in Ruhleben prison camp (Technical College..., 1915).

A clipping regarding the circumstances of Jones’s internment (see item 1/13/1) reveals it was five months before his family in New Zealand heard what had happened to him. His papers contain correspondence received from various officials showing that his family members petitioned for his release, but Germany was reluctant to return civilians home who would then be able (or obliged) to enlist in the fight against them (see item 1/11). Jones remained in the Ruhleben internment camp for the duration of the War and was released in late November 1918.

According to a biography of his sister, Lina, Albert had studied psychology while in Ruhleben camp and after the Armistice took up a career in psychology in Britain. He married and remained in England until his death in 1964 (Carter, 1985).

References

Carter, George G.(1985). Valuable beyond price: the story of Sister Lina M. Jones, 1890-1979, Rotorua: Wesley Historical Society.

Out of Ruhleben: Long terror ends. Christchurch school teacher’s letter. (13 February 1919). Horowhenua Chronicle, p.1.

Technical College and the War: students at the front. (16 December 1915). The Press, p.5.

Lina Maud Jones (1890-1979)

Lina Maud Jones was born in Christchurch in 1890, the fourth of five children of Sarah and John Henry Jones. She trained as a primary school teacher and taught at Glen Tunnel and Wharenui schools. In 1923, she heard an appeal for a teacher to go to the Solomon Islands, and felt called to respond.

Her application was accepted, and in March 1924, at the age of thirty-five, she sailed to Sydney. She spent two months learning Roviana, the language of the Solomon Islands. In June 1924, she travelled to the Solomons to begin her work at Roviana, the head station of the Methodist Mission.

Lina pioneered a method of teaching Solomon Islands children, known as Kinda (an abbreviation of kindergarten). The Kinda curriculum included Bible reading, geography, folk dancing, mat weaving, crayon drawing, maypole dancing, storytelling, singing, sewing, and games. By 1927, there were 60 children attending Kinda.

Apart from time on furlough in 1927, 1935, 1939, and then an absence of three years 1942-1945 due to the Second World War, Lina remained in the Solomons from 1924 until her retirement in 1950: a total of 19 years, 9 months overseas. She faced many hardships in the Solomons, including constant rheumatic back pain, and a dramatic evacuation from the Islands during WWII which is described in The Cruise of the Fauro Chief or The Tale of the Gizo Getaway(see 2/2).

During her almost two decades of service, in addition to teaching, she trained many teachers (both missionary and local), created a syllabus for schools, an English textbook, a Roviana storybook, and an arithmetic textbook. She translated the New Testament into Roviana, translated a book of hymns, and wrote a Roviana-English Dictionary. Some of these publications are held by the Library.

After her retirement in 1950, she lived in New Zealand and continued to be active in the Methodist church until her death in 1979, at the age of 90.

The Library also holds copies of Lina Jones’ correspondence and diaries on microfilm.

References

This biographical note is an abridged version of the section on Lina Jones in:

Crawford, Janet. (June 2010) Gender matters: contributions of New Zealand women to overseas missions. Paper presented at the Then, Now and Into the Future Conference, marking the centenary of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. Retrieved from http://www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/mission%20and%20ecum/janet%20crawford.pdf

Carter, George G. (1985). Valuable beyond price: the story of Sister Lina M. Jones 1890-1979. Rotorua: Wesley Historical Society.