Gareth Jones
[bas relief by Oleh Lesiuk]
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TOPICAL
'Are you Listening NYT?' U.N. Speech - Nov 2009 |
Gareth Recognised at Cambridge - Nov 2009 |
Reporter and the Genocide - Rome, March 2009 |
Order of Freedom Award -Nov 2008 |
Premiere of 'The Living' Documentary Kyiv - Nov 2008 |
Gareth Jones 'Famine' Diaries - Chicago 2008 |
Aberystwyth Memorial Plaque 2006 |
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Gareth’s mother, Mrs Annie Gwen Jones was an equally interesting person. As a young girl who had never previously left Wales, she travelled to Russia in 1889 to be the tutor to Arthur Hughes’s children, the grandchildren of John Hughes, the steel industrialist who founded the town of Hughesovska, later known as Stalino and now the City of Donetz. In old age she was a very fine, distinguished lady - a woman with high principles - and so it was difficult to visualise her in her youth riding with the hounds from the Court Estate of Merthyr Tydfil or skating on the lakes in the bitterly cold Russian winters. She was a woman with a strong personality. Early in the century she became a suffragist and the first meeting of the suffragettes in south Wales was held in the family home, Eryl. Crystabel Pankhurst, the daughter of Emily Pankhurst, attended this meeting. The town of Barry held her in high esteem and in her later years she accepted the honour of being made a Justice of the Peace. The family home was first in the Colcot, Barry and then in 1932, Gareth persuaded his father to buy ‘Eryl’ in Porth y Castell, Barry. This imposing house commanded a magnificent panoramic view of the Bristol Channel in the distance and nearer Cold Knap and Pebbley Beach, Barry Island and the old Barry Harbour. I have cherished memories of the Sunday afternoon teas when many friends both great and humble gathered in the drawing room for the animated conversation and the warmth of hospitality for which the Jones’ family was renowned. Auntie Winnie, Gareth’s aunt on his mother’s side and affectionately known as Ninnie, was well known for her lively nature and her delicious Welsh teas. Gareth’s early life seems to have been uneventful. His class reports from his father’s school were unremarkable. One story remembered is of how he entered the drawing room to the amusement of a number of guests, wearing a top hat on his head and sporting a walking stick announcing he was the Governor of Taganrog. (His mother had acted as hostess to the Governor when Mrs Hughes was away from their home in Hughesovska.) It is strange that though there are very many documents that she saved about her son there is not one letter from her to him despite the fact that it is said she wrote nearly every day. His death affected her very deeply and perhaps that is why there are very few references to his early days. |
Gareth with his Mother |
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