Kirk named the new hospital after Colonel Percy Lancelot Jones, USA, who had been an Army surgeon in the Spanish-American War, the Mexican Campaign and World War I. Jones was a pioneer of modern battlefield ambulance evacuation and commanded the ambulance service which was detached from the Allied Expeditionary Forces to the French Army during World War I.

Jones was decorated by America and France after the war for organizing what was called the finest mobile medical treatment in military history. Jones and his ambulance service were instrumental in creating the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps. He retired from the Army in 1931, was superintendent of Hamon Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, and died in 1941.

Kirk had served under Jones in 1913, and the two remained friends afterward. Percy Jones Hospital was officially dedicated on February 22, 1943. Attending the ceremony were the Surgeon General of the Army, Major General James Magee, Michigan Governor Harry R. Kelly, and the widow and daughter of Colonel Jones.

ERIE, Pennsylvania - August 9, 1941 - Colonel Percy L. Jones, head of the United StatesAmbulance Division serving with French Ttroops during the World War, died here tonight of a throat ailment.  His age was 67.

Colonel Jones retired as commanderof the Army Hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, In August 1931, to become head of Hammond Hospital here.

During the war he was credited with introducing to the Allied forces the idea of usingight motorized ambulance units.  The French Government decorated him with the Croix de Guerre and made him an officer of thethe French Legion of Honor.

Photo Courtesy of Millard Greer
November 2005