Alun Jones, Baron Chalfont

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Alun Jones, Baron Chalfont (1966)

Alun Arthur Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont , OBE , MC , PC (born December 5, 1919 in Llantarnam , South Wales - † January 10, 2020 ) was a British politician (formerly Labor Party ), journalist and author .

life and career

Gwynne Jones was the son of Arthur Gwynne Jones and Eliza Alice Hardman († 1975). He attended West Monmouth School in Monmouthshire . He later studied at the University of London's UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies .

In 1939 he entered the military as an officer candidate . From 1940 to 1961 he was a Regional Army Officer with the South Wales Borderers and served in Burma , Ethiopia , Cyprus , Egypt and Malaya . He took part in a mission in Malaya from 1955 to 1957. From 1958 to 1959 he was involved in a mission in Cyprus. In 1961 he was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel . He rose to the rank of colonel . He was also trained as a translator for Russian .

From 1961 to 1964 he was a defense and military correspondent for The Times newspaper; for this he gave up his military career. In this activity he gained a high reputation. He criticized the Conservative Party's defense policy . He spent the summer of 1963 in the USA at the invitation of the US State Department . He then published an analysis of US military power under the title The Sword and the Spirit . In October 1964 he became military adviser to the then opposition leader Harold Wilson , whose future defense concept he worked out. At this point he was non-party. He advised three parties in total. By his own admission, he would have been just as happy in a Tory or Liberal government ; he never expressed political views that could characterize him as right-wing or left-wing.

Jones was a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 1964 to 1970. There, as " Minister for Europe", he was responsible, among other things, for the European policy of the United Kingdom. From 1969 to 1970 he was the representative of Great Britain at the WEU . At the weekly New Statesman he was from 1970 to 1971 foreign editor (Foreign Editor) ; he also wrote columns for The Guardian newspaper .

Alun Jones died in January 2020 at the age of 100.

Career in business

He was also active in business. Jones was director of IBM UK Holdings Ltd and IBM UK Ltd from 1973 to 1990 . He became a member of the Supervisory Board (Board) of Spey Finance ; In 1974 the company collapsed during the real estate crisis. In the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), he served as Vice Chairman (Deputy Chairman) operates. From 1981 to 1990 he was Non-Executive Director of Lazard Brothers and from 1996 to 2001 at The Television Corporation , where he was Deputy Chairman from 1997 to 2001 .

From 1983 to 1990 he was President of the Nottingham Building Society . Jones was a director of Shandwick plc from 1985 to 1995 . From 1987 to 1995 he was chairman (Chairman) of Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering (VSEL plc) , a manufacturer of, among other warships . After the end of the Cold War , he began to focus VSEL on areas outside of defense, for example with the construction of oil rigs . In 1986, he was at VSEL Member of the Board (Board) , pushed the chairman of the office and carried it himself for 8 months off before Noel Davies was appointed as his successor. Jones was also the leader in modernizing their computer systems .

From 1990 to 1995 he was chairman (Chairman) in the Radio Authority . From 1994 to 1999 he was President (Chairman) of the Marlborough Stirling Group . He was also active as Chairman of the European Atlantic Group . He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Pilgrims Society . He was also a member of the Executive Committee of Southern Mining Corporation from 1997 to 1999 .

Until 1990 he was President of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). He was president of the UK Committee for the Free World , an organization that campaigns against communist propaganda. He was also a director of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the IT services group , and a small software company.

Membership in the House of Lords

On November 11, 1964, he was appointed Life Peer as Baron Chalfont, of Llantarnam in the County of Monmouthshire . This appointment was necessary because every member of the British Government must be a member of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Jones hadn't been a member of Parliament before; in addition, a by-election should not be risked because of a tight majority. He gave his inaugural address on December 17, 1964. In 1964 he also became a member of the Privy Council . On September 22, 1974, he resigned from the Labor Party after having previously come into conflict with it, including with its European policy . From then on he sat in the upper house as a crossbencher .

He stated defense policy and foreign policy as his political interests . He named China and Russia as states of particular interest . He was president of the Lords All-Party Defense Group . Jones spoke up in the 1960s on the subjects of defense, southern Rhodesia , Vietnam and the Geneva Conference on Disarmament . In the 1970s, he spoke on India - Pakistan relations, Greece's membership in NATO and Western European relations with the US . In the 1980s he spoke up about the invasion of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan , the Falkland Islands , and political prisoners in Ethiopia . He also commented on intended state regulations in the field of sport. Jones spoke in the 1990s on defense issues, the recognition of former Soviet republics, Arab- Israeli negotiations and the human rights situation in Turkey . In the years from 2000 he spoke up on topics such as defense policy, the reform of the House of Lords and the 2003 Iraq war .

He was the senior life peer of the House of Lords . During the period from the 2001/2002 session onwards, he was initially regularly present at meetings. From 2004/2005 he was only present irregularly. On April 28, 2004, he spoke for the last time. In the 2004/2005 session he moved from London to Oxfordshire .

He was granted a Leave of Absence on October 23, 2007 , which he ended on June 9, 2008. The last time he took part in a vote was on June 11, 2008, the only day of the session that he was present. Another Leave of Absence began on May 25, 2010 and ended with his departure from the House of Lords on November 10, 2015.

Honors

Jones was awarded the Military Cross in 1957. In 1961 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire . He is Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Paviors and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts .

family

He married Mona Mitchell in 1948, the daughter of Harry Douglas Mitchell, with whom he has a daughter.

Working in public

In November 1968 Jones visited the Falkland Islands on the occasion of the planned publication of a memorandum , the so-called "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) on the future legal status of the British overseas territory . There was also a meeting with the then Argentine Foreign Minister Nicanor Costa Méndez . As a result, however, no agreement could be reached.

Jones was the British negotiator in a series of arms control negotiations in Geneva . Among other things, he was involved in the decision on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty .

In November 1967, there was speculation that Jones would as British Minister for Europe in the course of the discussion about a picture of Britain in the EEC in the event that Germany is not its influence on France maintains, with a retreat of the Army of the Rhine , an international recognition of the GDR and the Oder-Neisse border as well as a withdrawal of Great Britain from NATO and a troop withdrawal from West Berlin threatened. According to the official account, he was only supposed to have presented the alternatives to membership in the event of failure when asked by journalists. During the accession negotiations, he rented a permanent place in Brussels with his staff. After Charles de Gaulle refused to join , Jones returned to London .

A few days before the British general election in February 1974, he was very critical of the influence of the left and trade unionists.

In March 2001, he called for a committee of inquiry to be convened into the causes of the crash of a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter in Scotland at the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. He had previously spoken out on the subject several times.

Publications

  • The Sword and the Spirit: An Analysis of American Military Power. The Times, London 1963, OCLC 752961597 .
  • The Great Commanders. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973th series (he wrote the foreword)
  • Clash of Arms: World's Great Land Battles. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976, ISBN 0-297-77236-8 . (Preface)
  • Montgomery of Alamein. Littlehampton Book Services, 1976, ISBN 0-297-77081-0 .
  • Waterloo - Story of Three Armies. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1979, ISBN 0-283-98235-7 .
  • 1980's: A Dangerous Decade. Manchester Statistical Society, 1983, ISBN 0-85336-064-2 .
  • Star Wars - Suicide or Survival. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985, ISBN 0-297-78464-1 .
  • By God's Will - a portrait of the Sultan of Brunei. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989, ISBN 0-297-79628-3 .
  • Defense of the Realm. Collins, 1987, ISBN 0-00-217980-6 .
  • The Shadow of My Hand. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, ISBN 0-297-81332-3 .

Web links

Commons : Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lord Chalfont in the Munzinger Archive , accessed on September 11, 2011 ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  2. ↑ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lord-chalfont-obituary-r5r3mgz8d
  3. ↑ a b c d e f profile; Lord Chalfont; Old soldier above the battle. In: The Independent . May 28, 1995.
  4. ^ The shadow of my hand excerpts from Google Books , accessed September 17, 2011.
  5. ↑ House of Lords: Members 'expenses Members' expenses on the House of Lords website , accessed September 17, 2011.
  6. ↑ Tuesday 23 October 2007 Minutes of the House of Lords meeting of 23 October 2007.
  7. ↑ Monday 9 June 2008 Minutes of the House of Lords meeting of June 9, 2008.
  8. ^ UK Considered Handover to Argentina in 1968. ( Memento of January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Falkland Islands Information Portal. dated January 2002.
  9. ↑ Breakdown or balloon? In: The time . 3rd November 1967.
  10. ↑ Mister Europe in the service of Her Majesty. In: The time. October 1, 1967.
  11. ↑ That would be a disaster. In: DER SPIEGEL . February 25, 1974.
  12. ^ Lords move on Chinook inquiry. In: BBC News. March 5, 2001.
  13. ↑ Set Chinook verdict aside, urges Chalfont. In: Herald Scotland. November 2, 1999.
  14. ^ Peers back new Chinook crash inquiry. In: BBC News. April 30, 2001, accessed October 12, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Alun, Baron Chalfont
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chalfont, Alun Arthur Gwynne Jones, Baron (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British peer and politician, journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Llantarnam , South Wales
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 2020