E. H. Jones (author)

Lieutenant Elias Henry Jones (21 September 1883 – 22 December 1942) was a Welsh officer in the Indian Army who, together with Australian C. W. Hill, escaped from the Yozgad prisoner of war camp in Turkey during the First World War. Their story was told in Jones' book The Road to En-dor.[1]

Elias Henry Jones
Born21 September 1883
Died22 December 1942
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service22 September 1915 – 11 November 1918
RankLieutenant
Battles/warsWorld War I
Other workFinancial Commissioner

Life

Jones joined the Indian Army and after serving as a private soldier in a Volunteer Artillery Battery was commissioned into the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 22 September 1915 and served in Mesopotamia during the First World War, being taken prisoner in April 1916. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 22 September 1916.[2]

After the war, he became Financial Commissioner and retired in 1922, settling in Bangor, North Wales.

Prison life and escape

Between February 1917 and October 1918, Jones and Hill convinced their Turkish captors that they were mediums adept at the Ouija board. The pair spent over a year conning the camp's commandant. Eventually they persuaded their Turkish captors they were insane and, after being moved to a hospital for the mentally ill in the summer of 1918, the two men played their roles as lunatics so successfully they also fooled the doctors and were returned home. Ironically, they arrived home only a few months before their brother officers were released from Yozgad.

Film

A film adaptation of The Road to En-dor was in development in 2008, written by Neil Gaiman and Penn Jillette, and produced by E. H. Jones's granddaughter Hilary Bevan Jones.[3]

References
  • The Road to En-dor, E. H. Jones, 1919
  1. "Jones, Elias Henry". National Library of Wales Welsh Biography Online. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  2. "E.H Jones' biography".
  3. firstshowing.net: Neil Gaiman and Penn Jillette Adapting The Road to Endor


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