Aubrey Jones (20 November 1911 – 10 April 2003) was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician who served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

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from 1950 to 1965.

Early life

Jones was born in

Penydarren : ''For Trevithick's Pen-y-darren locomotive, see Richard Trevithick.'' Penydarren is a community and electoral ward in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in Wales. Description The area is most notable for being the site of a 1st-century Roman fort, ...

. He attended Cyfarthfa Castle Secondary School in

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...

and later graduated with a first-class degree from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, where he won the Gladstone Memorial Prize. During his time at university he joined the

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, only to leave "after having heard a speech by

Sir Archibald Sinclair Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party. Backgr ...

." Soon after graduation he found employment as a "secretary-cum-research assistant" to the

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

Sir John Simon John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, (28 February 1873 – 11 January 1954), was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War. He is one of only three peop ...

. He was to undertake further work as a research assistant at the

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before moving on to journalism. An initial stint as a reporter for the '' Western Mail'' led, in 1937, to his recruitment by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', where he worked firstly as a sub-editor and then, two years later, as a correspondent in

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.Goodman, Geoffrey, "Jones, Aubrey (1911–2003)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2009; online edition, January 2007. . Following the outbreak of the

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he was recruited into the Intelligence Corps and soon transferred to Section V of the

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. He was posted to

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

after the

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Career

At the 1950 general election, he was elected as the first

(MP) for the new constituency of

. He was

Minister of Fuel and Power The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy. The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. ...

from 1955 to 1957, and the last

Minister of Supply The Minister of Supply was the minister in the British Government responsible for the Ministry of Supply, which existed to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to the national armed forces. The position was campaigned for by many sceptics of the for ...

from 1957 to 1959. He resigned from the House of Commons in 1965 in order to take up the position of Chairman of the newly created Prices & Incomes Board. He received an Honorary degree (Doctor of Science) from the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

in 1966. After leaving the Prices and Incomes Board in October 1970, he became chair of Laporte Industries and a director of

Thomas Tilling The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948. Tilling, together with the other conglomerate, British El ...

Cornhill Insurance Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. Th ...

and

Black & Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...

. At the 1983 general election, he stood as the Liberal candidate for

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...

, having rejoined the party in 1980 after a hiatus of nearly fifty years.

Published works

* ''The Pendulum of Politics'', 1946 * ''If Steel is Nationalised'', 1949 * ''Industrial Order'', 1950 * ''The New Inflation: the politics of prices and incomes'', 1973 * ''Economics and Equality'' (editor), 1976 * ''My LSE'' (contribution), 1977 * ''The End of the Keynesian Era'' (contribution), 1977 * ''Oil: the missed opportunity'', 1981 * ''Britain’s Economy: the roots of stagnation'', 1985

References

Sources

External links

*
The Papers of Aubrey Jones
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

1911 births 2003 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957 Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Ministers of Supply Secret Intelligence Service personnel UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1910s-stub