Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Private

Army Number : 19152

Unit : 2nd Bn

Biography :

Served with 2nd Bn in World War One. Joined the battalion in the field from 23rd and 24th reinforcements September 1915. Also served as a Private in the Labour Corps number 263430.

It is claimed that Rfn Kulbir Thapa VC rescued Pte Evan Jones from 'No Man's Land' at the Battle of Mauquissart, immediately to the north-east of Neuve-Chapelle, 25.9.1915 for which he won his VC - see letter below.

Medal Card: Jones Evan - Leic Regt Pte 19152 - Lab Corps 263430 - Victory, British War and 1915 Star medals - Disembarked France 7.7.1915 - discharged 22.5.1919.

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Letter received:

No. 43/A 29.4.1916

No. 19152 Pte Evan Jones
2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regmt.
Duchess of Hamiltion's Hospital
Luston Park
Wickham Market
Suffolk
-
Thank you for your letter of the 25th February 1916.

I was pleased to get your account of the action which earned Rfn Kulbir Thapa his VC.

Will you please send the bill for expenses incurred getting your photograph taken to 'The Adjutant - 3rd Queen Alexander's Own Gurkha Rifles, Lansdowne, India'.

Rifleman (now Naik, this equivalent to Corporal) Kulbir Thapa has been in hospital lately with a sore throat etc. but if you address a letter to him, to '2/3 - QAO. Gurkha Rifles, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Egypt c/o India Office, London', it will reach him alright.

I am afraid we have no photo of Kulbir with his medal ribbon but I enclose the only photograph we have of him.

Later on when we get back to our cantonment in India, we will have a better one of him taken, and a copy sent to you.

I see your gallant Regiment has had hard fighting again in Mesopotamia and that nearly all the old officers have gone now. However you will, (those of you who remain) have just cause for friends in the doings of your Regiment in the front was sound I am certain has been a recognised Regiment to the British Army.

I hope you will recover completely from your wounds.

With best wishes.

B Dalton, Captain

Adj 2/3 GR

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It is considered likely that Pte Evan Jones was the soldier rescued by Gurkha Kulbir Thapa VC as an email received from a reliable source advised: 'Your email confirms the details I received from the President of the Tigers Association, I think the link to the “Green Tiger – 2015” provides irrefutable evidence that Pvt Jones was the soldier rescued....' The view, however, needs to be endorsed by the appropriate authority.

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He became a publican at The Globe, Godreaman, Aberdare, South Wales, amongst others and moved to Harby, Newark, in 1950 where his first son lived as his first wife, Mary Ellen nee Rowland, who died in 1942 was native. They were married on the 1st February 1917 when Evan was 29 and Ellen 22. at the North End Wesleyan Chapel, Newark, Notts when a Private in the 2nd Battalion., Leicestershire Regiment, resident at Brockton Camp, Staffs.

Cutting from local newspaper Newark-upon-Trent, Nottinghamshire

Harby Death

aged 72 years, after a very brief illness. Mr Jones was a popular figure in the village, also a keen sportsman. in his later years taking up bowls. II was deep regret that Harby people heard of the death of Mr Evan Jones (affectionally known as "Taffy'")

Mr Jones has been connected with Harby for many years, coming during the 1914-18 war with the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, after a spell of active service in France, where he was badly gassed. Mr Jones was a native of Trelaw, Wales and returned to Wales after the war ended, and in 1950 returned to Harby, where he spent a very happy retirement.. Mr Jones leaves a widow and two sons. The interment took place at All Saints Church, Harby, The Rev. Taylor officiating. The family mourners were Mrs Jones (widow) W/O M Jones (son), Mr and Mrs Rowland Jones (son and daughter-in-law), Mrs and Mrs T Pixley, (sister-in-law and brother-in-law), Mr and Mrs E Roland, Hykeham (brother-in-law and sister-in-law), Mrs M Collingham, Barnetby (sister-in-law, Miss M Jones (grandchild), Mr Taylor and Mrs Ellis, Ashton-under-Lyne (brother-in-law and sister-in-law)m, Mrs R Brown, Saxilby, Mr Stroud, Saxilby, and Mrs E Wells. Others present were Mrs Shaw, Mr A W Millington, Mrs E Medley, Mr Thorlby jnr, Mr and Mrs F Withers, Mrs Talks, Mrs and Mrs Pickles, Miss Almond and Mr T Barnes, There were many beautiful floral tributes, including a wreath from Harby Bowls Club. The bearers were Messrs J Lane, H Medley, F Townsend and E Medley, members of the bowls club.

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THE CASE OF THE SOLDIER RESCUED BY GURKHA KULBIR THAPA VC
BATTLE OF LOOS 25TH SEPTEMBER 1915

For one hundred years the mystery surrounding the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment's soldier who had been rescued from No Man's Land by Gurkha Kulbir Thapa earning him the Victoria Cross during The Battle of Loos, September 1915, had been unsolved.

No record existed, contemporaneous or otherwise, naming the soldier rescued in the archives of the Leicestershire Regiment, as they recoiled from the savage actions that took life and limb of its courageous soldiers heavily preoccupied with their desperate situation in appalling conditions during the battle, although the event was referred to by Major-General Jacob in the History of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War:

“The account of this action,” notes the book, “must not be allowed to close without the mention of a very gallant act performed by Rifleman Kulbir Thapa, of the 2/3 Gurkhas, for which he received the Victoria Cross and reflects much credit on the man whose life he saved as upon the brave Gurkha himself.”

Sir John French, then Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, goes further. “During this action a deed, which could hardly be passed as bravery and self-sacrifice, was performed by rifleman Kulbir Thapa.”

Fast forward ninety-nine years to 2014 and we discover an article published in Leicestershire La La La promoted by Richard Lane, The Royal Leicestershire Regiment Association historian:

'The closing chapter of this unusual tale began two years ago, when Richard Lane, historian of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, contacted the curator of the Gurkha Museum in Winchester.

'Richard had questions about another Leicestershire soldier, Private William Buckingham who won the Victoria Cross for saving a number of men, including a Gurkha, in the thick of enemy fire during action at Neuve Chapelle on March 10 and 12 1915.
'In return correspondence, the museum curator Gavin Edgerley-Harris told Richard quite a tale.

'Just a few months after Private Buckingham's heroism, a Gurkha settled the debt of gratitude owed to this Leicestershire soldier by saving a man from the 2nd Leicesters, spending a day and night with him in No Man's Land during the Battle of Loos before carrying him back to safety.’

'The 'incredible' letter received got Richard thinking, the article continues. '…a bell rang in the distance.’

Richard Lane had been an associate of Cecil (Cis) Keightley MBE, now 91 years (Cis was 84 at the time of the Leicestershire La La La publication), through The Royal Tigers Association, and was aware of Cis' father William (Bill) Keightley having been severely wounded at the outset of the Battle of Loos and lying in No Man's Land for thirty-six hours before being rescued. It was therefore, according to Richard Lane in the absence of a named soldier, probable that it was Cis' father who was the man, a reasonable assumption one would think under the circumstances.

However, the assumption that Bill Keightley was the man is just that, as Cis pays caution to the belief:

'They all got over, but my dad was riddled with bullets, the top of his legs. And he was picked up 36 hours later.
'He did say that he laid there for 36 hours. He would be perhaps delirious. He never mentioned it, to be quite honest. Just that he was lying there for 36 hours. Maybe that's all he knew or was told. There was never any mention of a Gurkha saving him.'
When asked if it could have happened, Cis' reply was:

'I don't know, you see, it's a possibility. It's something we will never know. He didn't speak a lot about that time, and I should have quizzed him. But he didn't talk about his experience, like a lot of men. Those who served in the Second World War were the same.'

The article continues:

'Richard Lane, the regiment historian, thinks Bill Keightley is the soldier saved by Kulbir Thapa. 'Who else could it be?' He shrugs before going into a checklist of similarities: the right date, the right regiment, the right place, the injuries, and the time spent in No Man's Land.

'If it's not Bill Keightley, then who is it?'
One might well ask who is it? The battlefield would have been laden with the wounded who were unable to move because of their injuries, and Bill Keightley would have been one of many.

Perhaps the answer lies in an email received by the Royal Tigers Association database researcher, Graham Eustace, on the 25 April 2015, the 100th Anniversary year of the Battle of Loos. An email was received from Mrs Gwyneth Shaw, native to South Wales, regarding her grandfather, Evan Jones:

'Soldier name: Private Evan Jones – Further info: the family believes that he was rescued by Kulbir Thapa in 1915 when he got the first individual Gurkha VC. Trying to trace granddad's name in this rescue. I have a letter dated 29.4.1916 to granddad enclosed photo of Kulbir and thanking him for his account of the action from adjutant Dalton. Any help please?’

Mr Eustace then corresponded with Mrs Shaw, who provided a copy of the letter sent to 19152 Private Evan Jones from Captain B Dalton, the Adjutant of Kulbir Thapar's battalion, the 2/3 Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, transcribed as accurately as possible due to its age and condition:

'Thank you for your letter of the 25th of February 1916.
'I was pleased to get your account of the action which earned Rfn Kulbir Thapa the VC.
'Will you please send the bill for expenses incurred in getting your photograph taken to 'The Adjutant – 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own, Gurkha Rifles, Lansdown, India.
'Rifleman (now Naik, this equivalent to Corporal) Kulbir Thapa has been in hospital lately with a sore throat etc. but if you address the letter to him, to '2/3 – QAO, Gurkha Rifles, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Egypt c/o Indian Office, London', it will reach him alright.
'I am afraid we have no photo of Kulbir with his medal ribbon but I enclose the only photograph we have of him.
'Later on when we get back to our cantonment in India, we will have a better one of him taken, and a copy sent to you.
'I see your gallant Regiment has had hard fighting again in Mesopotamia and that nearly all the old officers have gone now. However you will (those of you who remain) have just cause for friends in the doings of your Regiment in the front was sound I am certain has been a recognised Regiment to the British Army.
'I hope you will recover completely from your wounds.
'With best wishes.
B Dalton, Captain Adj 2/3 GR’

Now there was a tangible record, laid dormant for ninety-nine years, about the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment's man pulled severely wounded from No Man's Land on the 25th September 1915 by the Gurkha.

However, it seems that the assumption and subsequent publication in the journal Leicestershire La La La by Richard Lane in 2014 has had a significant effect. Anyone researching Kulbir Thapa VC since 2014 would almost certainly have come across this article and with the involvement of the Gurkha Museum curator Gavin Edgerley-Harris and the exchanges, would have found it plausible.

In an email dated the 10th of October 2021, Mrs Shaw, brings up the point that the soldier told Gurkha Thapa to leave him and return to the British lines, so the soldier had to be conscious and yet Cis Keightley says that his father may have been delirious or unconscious and there was no mention of a Gurkha saving him.

An email received from Maureen Fox of South Africa, Gwyneth Shaw's sibling, on the 5th October 2021:

'Grandad (Evan) lived in the same village (Harby) as we did, and I was a regular visitor as a small girl, I was 12 years old when he died and well remember the painting of his rescue, which hung in his living room, I seem to remember it was painted by a fellow soldier. It was a side view of him being carried over what looked like muddy ground, and yes, as a family, we were always told that he was rescued by a Gurkha.’

Gwyneth's email 5th October 2021:

'Why if Evan wasn't the soldier involved would he keep a picture on his lounge wall of an incident that hadn't happened to him?’

Wikipedia entry:

Rifleman Kulbir Thapa, having been wounded himself, found a wounded soldier of The Leicestershire Regiment behind the first-line German trench (believed to be a 20-year-old soldier from Melton Mowbray by the name of Bill Keightley).

With this endorsement from what is generally believed an accurate source of information, it is not surprising that Shy Films portrayed the rescued soldier as Private Bill Keightley played by actor Stuart Walker in their film: Gurkha: Beneath The Bravery. In a response from Shy Films, they advised that their researchers had come up with the name and that it was too late now to change as the film had reached its final stages.

There is no reference in a Net search to a William Keightley being involved in the Kulbir Thapa action of the 25th of September 1915 other than in the Leicestershire La La La article of 2014 so there is a real probability that this is where the root of what appears to be misinformation found its way into official circles albeit guardedly. The information such as it is is not categoric and is merely supposition. Not once does it indicate that William Keightley was the man, always that there is the possibility that he is the man, in the absence of substantive proof.

Conclusion

There is nothing to support Bill Keightley as being the soldier rescued by the Gurkha as all reference to him is qualified with caution: Cis Keightley MBE, Richard Lane himself, the Leicestershire La La La account and Wikipedia. Richard Lane's reasons for believing that William Keightley was the soldier equally applies to Evan Jones: 'the right date, the right regiment, the right place, the injuries and the time spent in No Man's Land.’

In the case of Evan Jones, the evidence of the 2/3 QAO GR Adjutant's letter is a firm indication that he was the soldier, which is supported both circumstantially and anecdotally from his two granddaughters who also have the photograph of Kulbir Thapa sent by Captain B Dalton.

The weight is clearly in favour of Evan Jones… unless there is evidence provided to the contrary.

Date of Birth : 1885

Place of Birth : Trelaw, Wales

Date of Death : 23.1.1958

Place of Death : Top Street, Harby, Newark, Notts

Civil Occupation : Licensee

Period of Service : 1915 to 22.5.1919

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : France