Alun Arthur Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont, (5 December 1919 – 10 January 2020) was a British Army officer, a British politician and an historian.

Early life and military career

Gwynne Jones was born in modest circumstances in

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

. He was educated at West Monmouth School, and subsequently at the School of Slavonic Studies at the University of London. Joining the South Wales Borderers when the Second World War broke out, he was commissioned a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

on 2 November 1940. From 1941 to 1944 he fought in Burma alongside the Welsh poet Alun Lewis. On 1 January 1943, he received an emergency commission in the Royal Armoured Corps as a war-substantive lieutenant, with the same rank in the South Wales Borderers from 1 April. After the war, Gwynne Jones remained in the Army, receiving a substantive lieutenant's commission in the South Wales Borderers on 24 August 1946 (with seniority from 5 June 1942), and was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 5 December. He was awarded the Efficiency Medal in October 1950. Promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 5 December 1953, Gwynne Jones took part in a series of anti-terrorist campaigns, and was decorated with the Military Cross (MC) in August 1957 for commanding a company which fought in the Malaysian jungles during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

, after his involvement in a series of ambushes against communist insurgents. Gwynne Jones later stated, "I was lucky enough to carry out some successful ones." The citation reads as follows: Gwynne Jones was brevetted to lieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1960, and was decorated as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1961 Birthday Honours. He retired from the army on 30 June 1961 with the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Political life

Entering politics, he was a minister in the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

from 1964 to 1970 and from 1964 was appointed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. He was created Baron Chalfont, of Llantarnam in the County of

on 11 November 1964. Following the death of

Lord Shawcross Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, (4 February 1902 – 10 July 2003), known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Cri ...

in 2003, his life peerage was the most senior extant, and Lord Chalfont was placed higher in the order of precedence than four hereditary barons whose inherited titles were created after his. On 27 March 1967, in the House of Lords, Chalfont became the spokesman for

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

's Labour Party Government's attempt to divest Britain of the Falkland Islands. In November 1968 Chalfont travelled to the Falklands to canvas the people, and try to persuade them of the merit of becoming Argentine citizens. He was sent away in no doubt that the islanders wished to remain British, but, on his return to Britain, he reported, "I do not believe that the Falkland Islands can continue to exist for many years, as they are presently constituted. I believe one day that the Falkland Islands may be prepared to choose Argentine sovereignty. We must at all costs avoid giving the impression that we want to get rid of them, since that would set up precisely the reaction we would want to avoid." Chalfont resigned from the Labour Party in the early 1970s. He declared his resignation a "decision of personal and political principle". In October 1974, just after Labour won a second general election that year, he stated in an interview with the BBC journalist Robin Day: "I had hoped for a realignment of the politics of the radical left in this country and I believed when I left the Labour Party that a great success by the Liberal Party in this election could have helped that forward." In 1979 Lord Chalfont was one of a group of ex-Labour politicians who defected to support the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher at the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Chalfont was the author of several

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

books on subjects including the Napoleonic Wars. He contributed an article on ''The Strategic Defence Initiative'' to the Conservative Monday Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of their newspaper, ''Right Ahead''. Chalfont is a former chairman of the Radio Authority which regulated commercial radio in the UK until its role was absorbed by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

. He set up the Institute for the Study of Terrorism with Jillian Becker in 1985. Lord Chalfont retired from the House of Lords on 10 November 2015.

Personal life

In 1948 Gwynne Jones married Mona Mitchell (who died on 31 May 2008), the daughter of Harry Douglas Mitchell, and together they had one child, a daughter. He turned 100 on 5 December 2019 and died the following month, on 10 January 2020.

Publications

*1976: ''Montgomery of Alamein''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. *1979: ''Waterloo: Battle of Three Armies''. Anglo-Dutch by William Seymour; French by Jacques Champagne; Prussian by E. Kaulbach; prologue & epilogue by Lord Chalfont; edited by Lord Chalfont. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. . *1985: ''Star Wars: suicide or survival?'' London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. *1987: ''Defence of the Realm''. London: Collins. *1989: ''By God's Will: A Portrait of the Sultan of Brunei''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. *2000: ''The Shadow of my Hand''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (autobiography).

Arms

References

External links

*
UK Parliament
* Interview with Lord Chalfont BBC October 1974. Starts at 2min 30 sec on clip.
- YouTube
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chalfont, Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron 1919 births 2020 deaths Welsh centenarians British military historians Crossbench life peers Labour Party (UK) life peers Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Officers of the Order of the British Empire Member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco Men centenarians People educated at West Monmouth School Place of birth missing Place of death missing Recipients of the Military Cross South Wales Borderers officers Welsh politicians British Army personnel of World War II Royal Armoured Corps officers British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency Life peers created by Elizabeth II