My grandfather, Thomas Theodore Jones, a man of quiet strength and extraordinary resilience.

He was born on 8th June 1918 in the village of Hirwaun, South Wales, to David Griffith Jones and Emily Francis Jones. One of six brothers, Gwillam, Tom, Winston, John, Douglas, and Rae - he grew up in a close-knit family defined by duty and service. All six boys went on to serve in the Second World War, and against all odds, all of them survived. Tom was the last to make it home, returning only in 1946, nearly seven years after he'd first signed up.

He joined the Royal Naval Senior Reserve as a telegrapher on 27th June 1939, just months before the outbreak of war.

When he was captured on Christmas Day 1941 in Hong Kong, while serving aboard HMS Tamar, the world as he knew it changed forever. He was sent to Sham Shui Po, a grim prisoner of war camp, where thousands suffered under harsh conditions.

On 27th September 1942, he was forced onto the ill-fated Lisbon Maru, a Japanese transport ship secretly carrying POWs while flying no markings to protect them. The ship was torpedoed by an American submarine, unaware of its human cargo. As chaos erupted and the ship began to sink, Tom fought his way through rising waters and locked hatches. He survived by diving into the sea and swimming for his life toward the nearby Dongji Islands. There, he was saved by brave Chinese fishermen, who risked their own lives to clothe and feed him.

Sadly, his freedom was short-lived. He was recaptured and transferred to a prison camp in Osaka, Japan, where he endured unimaginable hardship for the remainder of the war. The experiences left physical and emotional scars that never truly healed. In his liberation questionnaire, Tom spoke highly of Surgeon Lieutenant Jackson of the Royal Navy, particularly in reference to him helping Tom following a brutal torture by the Japanese involving bamboo, which left permanent scars on his back.

After liberation, Tom was sent to New Zealand to recover. The toll of captivity was immense, but he endured it with quiet dignity. Months later, he boarded the hospital ship Maunganui on 29th November 1945, bound for Southampton. He arrived home on 10th January 1946, a day his family had long dreamed of. During the voyage, he kept a diary, capturing the thoughts and emotions of a man slowly returning to a life he had almost lost. That diary still exists, a treasured family heirloom now held by my father.

Just 16 days after his return, he married the love of his life, Lucy Fryer. After all the pain and separation, they were finally together, and life, in all its fragility, began anew.

He later died at the age of 38 on 23rd September 1956 from injuries sustained during his time as a Japanese POW, injuries from which he never fully recovered. Almost exactly 14 years after he set foot onto the fated Lisbon Maru. He left behind three children: Glyn (my father), Gaynor (who tragically died at a young age) and Mervyn.

Tom processed his wartime experiences through poetry. He wrote many deeply personal poems reflecting on what he had endured — including moving tributes to those who perished aboard the Lisbon Maru and heartfelt verses honouring the courage and memory of his fellow prisoners of war. But not all his poems were shaped by sorrow. He also wrote many tender and affectionate poems to his beloved Lucy, celebrating the life they shared together and the love that sustained him after the war. His words captured both the trauma he carried and the love that helped him heal.

Read Tom's poem A Soldier Speaks.