Of the many messages that reached us, none touched a deeper chord than the following:
7th August, 1917.
I would like to convey to you my condolences in the loss of your son, Lieut. H. P. M. Jones. Although a stranger, I am moved to do this after reading in to-day's Daily Chronicle the account of his career and those noble words he wrote in his letter home just before his death. I and those around me felt, "Here was a fine man and one the country could ill afford to lose." May it be some comfort to you in your grief, that your boy's death made at least one man say to himself: "I will try to be a better man."—Anonymous.
I cannot express how intensely I feel for you in your great sorrow at the death of Paul. Of surpassing intellect and noble ideals, he would have been invaluable to the country in the near future. I feel sure it must be a source of great pride and comfort to you that he made the supreme sacrifice in such a courageous way, so becoming to his noble soul. He will live for all time in my mind as the very essence of honour and idealism.
"That was a wonderful letter," writes a newspaper proprietor. "I have read nothing finer. It brought tears to my eyes, but it made me proud of my race."
The athletic editor of a London newspaper, who is an authority on public-school athletics, wrote:
In your son's death we have lost a model sportsman. I will long remember him, as will Dulwich and the young giants of the school he so splendidly led.
From an official of the House of Commons:
I have prayed earnestly that there may be comfort in your mourning, and in due time a binding-up of hearts so sorely broken. The record of his school life, vivid with success and leadership and, best of all, whole-hearted in its purity, wrung my heart as I thought of what had been lost to us. But I believe he has passed on to other service.