SECOND LIEUTENANT ZIBA SONES
5TH BATTALION LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
KILLED IN ACTION
22ND MARCH 1918
AGE 38 YEARS
Of all the sixty-nine men listed on the Halesworth war memorial, who gave their lives during the Great War 1914-18, just three had served as Commissioned Officers, with the remainder being classified as Other Ranks. These men and boys would have been known as coming from the working class, albeit that several of them were skilled artisans and tradesmen, while those considered to be Officer material would have been perceived as being middle or upper class. As the war progressed and the lists of casualties suffered by Officers grew, the authorities had to resort to commissioning more men from the rank and file. with many men from the lower ranks becoming Officers. This, in some quarters of the Officer class, resulted in feelings of resentment, with those men who had risen through the ranks becoming known as ‘Temporary Gentlemen’ or T.G.’s, a term often used by the famous war poet William Owen. Although far from coming from the landed gentry the three Halesworth Officer casualties were sons of business owners in the town. The Frost brothers’ (see their stories) father owned the ironmongers store at 8, Thoroughfare, while the third officer casualty, Ziba Sones Junior, was the son of Ziba Sones whose boot and shoe manufacturing business had been run from his shop at 3, Thoroughfare for many years the family home being a fine property known as Townsend Villa situated at the far end of Chediston Street.
The young Ziba was born in Halesworth on 22nd June 1879, the second son of his father Ziba senior and his wife Frances (née Sheldrake). From a young age it was reported that he had a genial and cheery personality. He may have begun his education at the town’s boys’ school but, as his father’s business had grown, in 1891 his father had secured him a place at the prestigious local school, Framlingham College, where young Ziba remained until the age of eighteen years in 1896. He then joined the family business. It appears that his father wished his son to learn the role of a leather merchant from the bottom up as he was first employed as a leather dresser. By the time of the 1911 census he was managing the family’s shop. As he grew in age, he also became very involved in the social aspects of the townspeople At one time he held the post of Secretary to both the Halesworth Cricket and Football Clubs. In 1903, he was also invited to join the town’s Masonic Lodge of Prudence at the comparative young age of twenty three. It appears that his main contribution to the town revolved around entertainment. Long before the days of the cinema and with music halls normally located in larger towns, it was left to local committees to organise concerts etc for the benefit of the town. In this role Ziba excelled, not only arranging many of the details, but appearing himself as an all-round entertainer. He became so successful in his various acts that his talent was recognised so that he was soon in great demand, travelling to many other towns in East Anglia and further afield. In fact he proved so successful that he eventually had advertising cards printed (see below).
On the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 the last thing on Ziba’s mind would have been enlisting in one of the armed forces. However as the local area filled with troops, with some being trained in areas such as Henham Park and others employed in patrolling the local coastline, watching for signs of a possible invasion, it was not long before he became involved with entertaining those troops. In an article published in late 1915 in ‘March Past’ the magazine of the 4th Mounted Brigade, who were serving in the local area, was the extraordinary talent shown by a Mr Ziba Sones, during the recent concert party held on behalf of the Glamorganshire Yeomanry was mentioned. His contact with the Welshmen of the Yeomanry developed further. After he was called up to serve in the army following the introduction of conscription in January 1916, it would appear that various strings were pulled to allow him to join his new friends. He enlisted to become 2847 (later 90257), a Trooper in ‘B’ Squadron, 2nd/1st Glamorganshire Yeomanry on 22nd May 1916.
Almost exactly two months later he was granted leave to attend his own wedding on 26th July 1916. He married Minnie Riley French at Northbourne, a village in the area of Didcot, Berkshire. After their marriage they set up home in the village of Holton on the outskirts of Halesworth. On 17th February 1917 Ziba received promotion to the rank of acting Corporal, by now having experienced the life of a soldier, and on a recommendation from his Commanding Officer he applied for a Commission (initially no doubt reflecting his civilian employment) to serve in the Supplies Section of the Army Service Corps, This was not granted. Instead he was accepted to serve as an Infantry Officer. On 5th May 1917 Ziba had travelled to report to the No.13 Officers Cadet Battalion, then based at the Hutments, Newmarket, Suffolk. On completing his Officer’s training four months later, the London Gazette of 24th September 1917 confirmed his commission to serve as a Second Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment T.F. His battalion had been a pre-war Territorial Force unit based in the northern English town of Bolton. They had been serving in France ever since February 1915.
The details of Ziba’s service life after completing his Officer training have been very difficult to trace as although he had been commissioned to serve in the 5th Loyals, information found on the 13th Officers Cadet Battalion form regarding the men from his course and the regiments that they were to serve with shows that he was to be attached to the 4th Loyals. Still later, other records then show him as being attached to the 2nd Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment, while the details on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website list him as serving with his original battalion, the 5th Loyals. Without any solid evidence of which unit he was serving in it is difficult to confirm what part of the front Ziba was serving on at the time of his death. The date and circumstances of his death can be recorded accurately as, in the newspaper article published in the Halesworth Times of 9th April 1918, in which his widow Minnie announced his loss, a letter is mentioned that had been sent to her by an unnamed brother Officer of Ziba’s who described how, during a fierce bombardment fired by the German artillery, her husband had left the safety of a dugout and was proceeding along his trench, comforting his men, when he had been caught in the blast of a heavy shell, his death being instantaneous. The writer of the letter had then gone on to explain that Ziba had been greatly respected and esteemed by all in the regiment. This fact was fully borne out in another letter that Minnie received, written by the battalion’s padre. Regrettably, by the nature of his death, there would have been little, if any, of his remains to be buried or identified so that today Ziba, with many others who met a similar fate, are remembered on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing on the Somme, France.
Sometime after hearing of her husband’s loss Minnie left Holton, moving to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. It would have been here that she received a gratuity for her husband’s life of exactly £100. She would also have been entitled to claim his medal entitlement of the British War and Victory medal pair, with his named bronze memorial plaque and scroll.
Ziba’s boxed medal pair is now in a private collection dedicated to the memory of those men from Halesworth who left hearth and home to fight in the War to end all wars, while the location of the memorial plaque and scroll is not known.
As well as being listed on the Halesworth memorial, Ziba is also remembered on the Holton village and the Framlingham College’s memorials to those who gave their lives.
