Minister who swapped kirk for machine gun
The frontline bravery of an ex-Stirling minister led to him being called a “holy terror”.
Rev Ned Jones had been parish minister of St Ninians but enlisted as a private in the Royal Engineers two years before.
He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, with which he went to France, and was wounded in the latest fighting. He was recovering in a hospital in Leicestershire.
Nurse Janet Scott, who was working at the hospital, said: “In a ward the other day a noisy group of soldiers from all parts of the United Kingdom were in the middle of a heated argument about the merits of different claimants to the title of bravest comrade they had served with.
“One little Cockney of the Machine Gun Corps managed to shout others down and told the story of a ‘Scotch bloke’ with whom he had been serving when he was knocked out.”
The Cockney said: “He was a holy terror and no mistake.
“His name among us was Ned Jones and he didn’t know what fear was.
“I have seen him stand out with his gun team with the bullets coming along in showers and never so much as a blink of the eye.
“If there was any disagreeable work going, involving more than the usual risks of the trade, Jones was one of the first to volunteer for it and one of the last to come back.
“He knew how to lay out the Huns. I remember one day they came in on us and three made a rush at the Scotch bloke. He didn’t look as if there was anything unusual happening but just let the Germans have as good as he could give them and laid out the bunch.
“He did it so well I thought he must have been a prizefighter all his life.
“You could have knocked me down with a feather when I was told one day that this fine fighting chap was a Scottish parson.
“It was only the day he was wounded that I learned his name was the Rev Edward Jones and that until 18 months ago he was the minister of a church in Stirling.”
I have seen him stand out with his gun team with the bullets coming along in showers and never so much as a blink of the eye