John Daniel Jones

John Daniel Jones CH (13 April 1865 – 19 April 1942) was a Welsh Congregational minister.

He was born in Ruthin, Denbighshire, the son of Joseph David Jones (1827–70), a schoolmaster in the town and a respected musician and composer. The family moved to Tywyn, his mother's home town. In 1877, after the early death of his father, his mother married David Morgan Bynner, a Congregational minister at Chorley. After studying at Manchester University, Lancashire Independent College and St Andrews University, he was ordained at Newland Congregational Church, Lincoln in 1889.^[1]

Jones became well known as the minister of Richmond Hill Church, Bournemouth where he was minister from 1898-1937. He was elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1909–10, and again in 1925–6. In 1919 he was elected an honorary secretary of the union, a position which he held until his death.^[2]

Politically a Liberal, Jones spoke regularly in support of his brother Henry Haydn Jones, MP for Merioneth from 1910-45. Lloyd George was a personal friend and in retirement a near neighbour and visitor.^[3]

After his return to Wales to retire, he was the subject of a memorable satirical poem by Saunders Lewis.^[4]

References

1. Binfield, Clyde; Taylor (eds), John (2007). Who They Were in the Reformed Churches of England and Wales. Shaun Tyas. p. 117. ISBN 978 1900289 825.
2. S. M. Berry, ‘Jones, John Daniel (1865–1942)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 March 2013.
3. Binfield, Clyde; Taylor (eds), John (2007). Who They Were in the Reformed Churches of England and Wales. Shaun Tyas. p. 118. ISBN 978 1900289 825.
4. Owen, Richard Griffith. John Daniel Jones, Welsh Biography Online; Gruffydd, R. Geraint. 1992. '"I'r Dr J. D. Jones, CH" Saunders Lewis', in J. E. Caerwyn Williams (ed.), Ysgrifau Beirniadol 18. Dinbych: Gwasg Gee, pp. 240-44.