The Hon. Kenneth Arthur Newton Jones (1924–1964), better known as Ken Jones, was a Jamaican politician and former Minister of Communications and Works (1962–1964).
Early life
Ken Jones and his twin brother Keith were born on September 1, 1924 in
Portland Parish
Portland, with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part ...
of
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
. Their father, Frederick McDonald Jones O.B.E., was a planter and a prominent member of the local
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
.
Their mother, Gladys (nee Smith), was a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
Missionary. She was a graduate of
William Penn College
William Penn University is a private university in Oskaloosa, Iowa. It was founded by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1873 as Penn College. In 1933, the name was changed to William Penn College, and finally to William P ...
in
Oskaloosa, Iowa
Oskaloosa is a city in, and the county seat of, Mahaska County, Iowa, United States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Oskaloosa was a national center of bituminous coal mining. The population was 11,558 in the 2020 U.S. Cens ...
, and she arrived at Happy Grove School in Portland in 1918 for her mission. Gladys Jones played an important role in the school, including helping to initiate the transformation of the school into an academic high school. In 1959, she was awarded
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
by
Queen Elizabeth the Second. Other children of Fred and Gladys include
Evan Jones (born December 29, 1927), who became a poet, playwright and screenwriter.
Ken Jones attended
Munro College
Munro College is a boarding school for boys in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. It was founded in 1856 as the Potsdam School (named for the city of Potsdam), a school for boys in St. Elizabeth as stipulated in the will of plantation owners Robert Hugh Mun ...
, a boarding school for boys in
St Elizabeth, Jamaica
Saint Elizabeth, one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island.
History
Saint Elizabet ...
, between 1935 and 1942. After that, he left Jamaica to attended
Earlham College
Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...
in Indiana, but soon, in 1943, he joined the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. Upon completion of his training in Canada, Ken Jones served as a Flight Sergeant. During the war, there were about 400 Jamaicans serving as RAF air crew, and Ken Jones was one of them.
Career in Public Service
In 1946, Ken Jones returned to Jamaica. He first worked in the business, and in 1951, he was elected to the Portland Parochial Board, which marked the beginning of his career in public service. In 1953, he served as a
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
. In 1955, he was elected to the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
as the member for Eastern Portland. In 1962, Ken Jones was appointed Minister of Communications and Works of Jamaica. The major achievements during his tenure include:
# Launching a program to twin the bridges on the national highway.
# Commencing work on the Sandy Gully Drainage System in Kingston.
# Instituting a program to build post offices with living quarters upstairs.
# Trans Atlantic telephone service was opened to the UK and agreements were in place for
Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...
and
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...
to commence service to Jamaica.
Marriage
In 1958, Ken Jones was married to Marlene d'Auvergne Holtz of Kingston. Gladys Rebecca Jones, their daughter, was born in 1960.
Death
On October 11, 1964, Ken Jones died in an untimely manner. ''The Daily Gleaner'', Jamaica's most important newspaper, reports his death in these words:
"Gleaner Staff Reporter
"MONTEGO BAY, S.J., Oct. 11:
"THE HON. KENNETH JONES, Minister of Communications and Works, died in the Montego Bay hospital this morning as a result of injuries he suffered in a fall from the upstairs balcony of his room at the Sunset Lodge Hotel, where members of the Cabinet, other members of the Parliament and their top Civil Service advisers were spending the week-end in a special 'retreat' conference to review Government politics and plan future action."
However, the true cause of Ken Jones' death is mysterious and controversial. Many believe he might have been a victim of political assassination. In 1994, ''The Daily Gleaner'' published a series of articles questioning the legitimacy of the inquest and other suspicious circumstances of his death.
Legacy
A few places in Jamaica are named in Ken Jones' honour, including:
# The
Ken Jones Aerodrome
Ken Jones Aerodrome is an airport located west of Port Antonio, in northeastern Jamaica. The facility is named after Jamaican civil servant and politician Kenneth Arthur Newton Jones. It serves tourist resorts in the area and local travel.
K ...
in St. Margaret’s Bay
# The Ken Jones Highway in
St. Thomas
# The Ken Jones Park in Manchioneal
# The Ken Jones Post Office in Haddington,
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
#
Ken Jones' mysterious death is portrayed in his brother
Evan Jones' 1998 novel ''Stone Haven''. A fictionalized Ken Jones in the name of "Sir Arthur George Jennings" is one of the narrators of
Marlon James' 2014 novel ''A Brief History of Seven Killings''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Kenneth Arthur Newton
Jamaican twins
1924 births
1964 deaths
People from Portland Parish
Earlham College alumni
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Members of the House of Representatives of Jamaica
20th-century Jamaican politicians
Government ministers of Jamaica