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The following obituary for Lewis Tobias Jones appeared in the Times newspaper.
| Obituary in the Times newspaper | |
| Date | Obituary |
| 14 October 1895 | DEATH OF ADMIRAL SIR L.T. JONES. We regret to announce the death of Admiral Sir Lewis Tobias Jones, which took place on Friday night at Rugby-house, Southsea. He was in his 98th year, and had enjoyed robust health. He had often said that his only illness was the ague from which he suffered when he served on the West Coast of Africa. His illness lasted but two days, and he died without pain from senile decay.Lewis Tobias Jones, second son of Captain L.T. Jones, some time of the 57th and 14th Regiments, was born on December 24,1797, and on January 1, 1808, when he had just completed his tenth year, entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman in the gun-brig Thrasher, 14, then under the command of Lieutenant Josiah Dornford. In this little vessel he appears to have been present at a spirited action which, on April 26 following, she fought with 40 French gun-vessels off Boulogne, sinking three and driving six more on shore. He also seems to have accompanied the unfortunate expedition to Walcheren. In 1812 he removed into the Stirling Castle, 74, to whose captain, Sir Jahleel Brenton, he was related, and subsequently into the Bellerophon, 74, and Medway, 74, Captain Augustus Brine. The latter ship carried out Lord Charles Somerset to the Cape of Good Hope, and, having there hoisted the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Tyler, subsequently proceeded as a private ship on a cruise, and, after an 11 hours' chase, captured on July 12, 1814, the American sloop-of-war Syren, 16. In the following year Mr. Jones became Acting-Lieutenant of the Ariel, 16, on the Cape Station, and next went, as Admiralty midshipman, to the Granicus, 36, Captain William Furlong Wise, in the Mediterranean. In this frigate, which was very beautifully handled and heavily engaged, he assisted, on August 27, 1816, at Lord Exmouth's bombardment of Algiers, and was slightly, wounded in both knees. He subsequently served in various parts of the World in the Cyrus,20, Spartan, 46, Newcastle, 60, and Jaseur, 18; and on August 29, 1822, was promoted to be Lieutenant and appointed to the Athol, 28, Captain Henry Bourchier, on the Halifax Station, where he remained for two years. Upon his return he joined, in succession, the Cordelia, 10, Edinburgh, 74, and Princess Charlotte, 104. The last-named was flagship of Sir Robert Stopford in the Mediterranean, and in her, on June 28, 1838, Mr. Jones became Commander. He remained an officer of the ship, and participated, in 1840, in the operations on the coast of Syria. In September of that year he landed at D'Journi and served with the Anglo-Turkish forces on shore, acting as officer of the beach, and also superintending the issue of arms and ammunition to the people of the Lebanon. In consequence of these services he was, on November 4, 1840, made a Post-Captain; but, as for some years he was unable to obtain further employment afloat, he became a student at the Royal Naval College. In 1847 Captain Jones was given command of the Penelope, steam frigate, bearing the broad pennant of Sir Charles Hotham on the African coast. Here, under the Commodore's direction, Captain Jones was active in the repression of the slave trade, and, in 1849, commanded the boats of the squadron at the destruction of a number of slave barracoons at the Gallinas. Having paid off the Penelope, he commissioned, in 1850, the steam-paddle frigate Samson, 6, in which he at once returned to the West African coast. In November, 1850, a British attack on the great slave stronghold of Lagos had been repulsed, and Commodore H.W. Bruce, the new Commander-in-Chief on the station, intrusted Captain Jones with the duty of reducing the place. The work was done on December 26 and 27, and, said the Commodore, in his despatch, "Captain Jones, who commanded the expedition, was no lees conspicuous for his gallantry and firmness than for his judgment and energy." After a fierce struggle Lagos was taken, and from that day to this it has been wholly under British influence. In 1861 it was permanently annexed to the British Empire. Writing, not many years ago, about this affair, Sir L.T. Jones said: — The vagaries of a Congreve rocket at Lagos were curious. Whether by the motion of the boat or other reason I do not know, the rocket did not go where it was intended, but plunged into the sea, and rushed along under water for about fifty yards, then running up a sloping sandbank 20ft. High and over a short wall, and setting fire to a house, which led to a general blaze and the silencing of a very annoying fire — a very good Congreve, that did its duty. Captain Jones returned to England with the despatches, and then, still in the Samson, which he commanded for nearly four years, proceeded to the Mediterranean. Just before the outbreak of the Russian war he accompanied the Allied Fleets to Baldjik Bay, and on April 22, 1854, he was senior officer of the British division of the steam squadron that bombarded Odessa. With him he had the Terrible, Tiger, Retribution, Furious, and a detachment of rocket-boats, as well as the French vessels Mogador, Vauban, Descartes, and Caton. The Samson fired the first shot at the Imperial Mole, and then headed the first division as it circled and fired in front of the batteries; but, although she was hotly engaged for over 12 hours, she had only five men wounded. In May the Samson took part in the attack on Redoubt Kaleh, and was afterwards, for a time, left there in support of the Turkish garrison, but she was able, in October, to share in the first bombardment of Sevastopol. In the following month, the Samson having been damaged during the terrible hurricane of November 14, Captain Jones took command of the London, 90, and in her and in the Princess Royal, 91, assisted in the blockade_ of Sevastopol and in various operations off the mouth of the Dnieper and elsewhere. On June 17, 1859, he was promoted to be Rear-Admiral, and in the following September he hoisted his flag in the screw frigate Impérieuse, 51, as second in command on the East India and China Station. Here he bore an important part in the operations which led to the capture of Peking on October 13, 1860. His flag flew, during the latter part of his command, in the Chesapeake, 61. Soon after his return he was, on March 31, 1862, appointed senior officer at Queenstown, with his flag in the Hastings, 50 ; and there he remained for two years. This was his last active command. He became a Vice-Admiral on December 2, 1866, retired on April 1, 1870, and reached the rank of Admiral on the Retired List on July 14, 1871. Previous to this he had, in 1861, been created a K.C.B., and in 1873 he was deservedly made a G.C.B. From 1869 to 1884 he enjoyed a flag officer’s good-service pension, and in 1884 he was appointed Visitor and Governor of Greenwich Hospital. Sir Lewis was an officer of the Legion of Honour, and, in addition to the Medjidieh of the third class, wore the medal and clasp for Algiers, the Syrian medal, the Crimean and Turkish medals, with Sevastopol clasp, and the China medal. With Sir Lewis Tobias Jones dies one of the last survivors of the long French wars which ended in 1815. No officer of his day saw more or harder service. Up to the time of his 66th year he had passed nearly 42 years at sea in receipt of full pay; and, during that long period, he was so fortunate as seldom to be absent from the spot at which his energy, judgment, and boldness could be of greatest use to his country. A relative of his, Lewis Tobias Jones, is now a midshipman in the Navy. Sir Lewis Jones was vice-president of the Portsmouth Royal Sailors' Home and an active member of the committee of the Seamen's and Marines' Orphan Home. |
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