Robert Jones (19 August 1857-6 September 1898) was a British Army private who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery at the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift.
Biography[]
Robert Jones was born in Penrhos, Monmouthshire, Wales on 19 August 1857, and he enlisted in the British Army's 24th Regiment of Foot and was deployed to South Africa. He befriended the fellow Welsh soldier William Jones, and they referred to each other by their service numbers due to their shared surnames. From 22 to 23 January 1879, the two Joneses defended the hospital at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, and he suffered four spear wounds, minor burns, and a bullet wound. After the battle, both Joneses were awarded the Victoria Cross, and he became a farm laborer in Herefordshire after the war's end. In 1898, he killed himself with a shotgun while crow-shooting, having suffered from nightmares about Rorke's Drift for years.