William Jones Onions, a coal miner at Oakdale Colliery and an active member of the Wesleyan Social Club in Pontllanfraith, was the second son of Richard and Gertrude Onions of Rhiw-Syr-Dafydd. He served in the 1/1st (Rifle) Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment, arriving on the continent in France in August 1915.

Late in 1915, the battalion became the designated pioneer unit for the 46th (North Midland) Division. In December of that year, the division was shipped out to Egypt to secure imperial assets, but was returned to the Western Front in France by January 1916.

In late May 1917, the division was holding the line directly in front of Lens, a small industrial and coal-mining city heavily fortified and occupied by German forces, with the front line cutting right through the western perimeter of the industrial works. Private W J Onions (226022) was killed in action during this intense sector defense on 26 May 1917, aged 20. He is buried in Beehive Cemetery, Willerval, France, and is commemorated on the Battalion War Memorial inside St Woolos Cathedral, Newport.