Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 86:143-144, 2003 
Obituary: F G W Jones MA, ScD, CBiol, FIBiol 
1914-2003 
Frederick George William Jones (Fred) was born 
'upstairs in the front room' on November 15 th 1914 in 
Cannock, Staffordshire in England, and spent his 
childhood days nearby in a small coalmining village 
called Norton Canes in the English 'Black Country'. His 
first recollection of his father George was in 1918, when 
George returned from the First World War with serious 
war wounds, including only one eye. Post war times 
were hard indeed - Fred had rickets (vitamin D 
deficiency) and survived pneumonia - but his strong will 
and sense of purpose was evident from early on, and 
through his own efforts and hard work, and the 
encouragement of his mother Alice, he obtained 
scholarships to attend Queen Mary's Grammar School 
(1926-1933) in Walsall, Staffordshire, and a State 
Scholarship to Cambridge University to study Natural 
Sciences in 1933. It was with some trepidation that he 
arrived at Jesus College in Cambridge, wearing working 
boots and with a strong Midlands accent. Nevertheless 
he flourished both in his studies and in his many other 
interests - he sang in Jesus College Choir, joined the 
University Music Society, was a founding member of the 
University Rambling Club, and secretary of the Botanical 
Section of the University Natural History Society. He 
didn't have enough money for the train fare home, so he 
had to cycle back to the Midlands, and he subsequently 
cycled all over Britain. Fred graduated in 1937 with a 
specialisation in Entomology and Experimental Zoology. 
Fred's first job (1937 - 1947) was in the Agricultural 
Advisory Service based in the School of Agriculture in 
Cambridge. During this era he spent much time working 
in the Fenlands region of East Anglia advising farmers 
on how to control damaging agricultural pests and 
stabilise crop production. Legislation in 1943 enforcing 
crop rotation in the fenlands ('the Sugar Beet Eelworm 
Order') was one notable outcome of his work during this 
period. This early advisory experience gave him a broad 
background in practical agriculture that benefited him 
greatly in his later years as a more specialised 
agricultural scientist. He was in a 'reserved' profession 
during the Second World War because of the importance 
of self self-sufficiency in food. As an 'Intelligence Officer' 
in the Home Guard he had many hilarious (and some 
serious) tales of the second World War years - such as 
the inadvertent shooting of the Professor of French in the 
bottom on maneuvers, and looking out of the window in 
the Zoology Department to see a Messerschmitt warplane 
strafing Downing Street in Cambridge. In 1940, he 
married fellow student Margaret Barnes who studied the 
same courses as he did and also specialised in 
entomology, and they had four children (Susan, Roger, 
Michael and Robert). 
From 1947 to 1955, Fred was first a Demonstrator then 
Senior Lecturer in agriculture at Cambridge University, 
and Director of Studies in agriculture at Jesus College. 
His lectures covered the full spectrum of agricultural 
pests, and later these lectures formed the basis of the 
textbook Pests of Field Crops that he authored jointly with 
Margaret. He built a successful research team in 
entomology and Nematology at Cambridge, specialising 
in later years in Nematology -unsegmented roundworms 
that attack plant roots. Although beet cyst-nematode 
became the main focus of his research, other 
achievements at that time included the discovery and 
description of the carrot cyst-nematode. In 1948 the 
family moved to the village of Great Shelford, where 
Fred ran his two acre garden with agricultural precision, 
kept honey bees, chickens, ducks and rabbits, and grew 
more than sufficient vegetables and fruits to feed the 
family. In 1956 the family moved to Harpenden, 
Hertfordshire, when Fred was appointed Head of the 
Nematology Department at Rothamsted Experimental 
Station, eventually becoming Deputy Director in 1966. 
He retired officially from Rothamsted in 1979 at age 65, 
but remained on site until 1987 as an honorary scientist 
in the Statistics Department. After retiring, Fred 
maintained his scientific activities, first as editor of 
Nematologica, then as Managing Director and Secretary of 
the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature 
(1980-1987). 
The time when Fred was at Rothamsted was the 
heyday of the Nematology Department. Fred made many 
valuable contributions to this subject, including the first 
steps in breeding potatoes resistant to the potato cyst- 
nematode, proposing a gene-for-gene interaction 
between cyst nematodes and their hosts, developing an 
understanding of the soil as an environment for 
nematodes, and significant contributions to modelling. 
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