Sir Edward Martin Furnival Jones

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(7 May 1912 – 1 March 1997) was Director General of

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

, the United Kingdom's internal security service, from 1965 until 1972.

Career

Born in

High Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing Cr ...

and educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

, Furnival Jones was a

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

graduate, having read modern and mediaeval languages, and law. He was admitted as a solicitor in England in 1937, joining the leading City of London law firm

Slaughter and May Slaughter and May is an international law firm headquartered in Bunhill Row, London. Founded in 1889, Slaughter and May is considered to be one of the most prestigious law firms in the world and is a member of the "Magic Circle" of elite London ...

. When the Second World War broke out, Furnival Jones was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, transferring to the Security Service, MI5, in 1941. He was Director-General of MI5 from 1965 to 1972.

Personal life

Jones resided in the

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentiet ...

. He was a tennis player and bird watcher and loved to perform in amateur theatre in both the local groups, including the Play and Pageant Union and Speedwell Players. It was during a production of ''I Remember Mama'' that he first met his wife, Margaret.Nora Packer, writing in Garden Suburb Theatre newsletter edition 47, May 1997

References

Directors General of MI5 Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor People educated at Highgate School 1912 births 1997 deaths People from Chipping Barnet {{UK-gov-bio-stub