Reginald Victor Jones

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Werner Flos and RV Jones (right) in 1987

Reginald Victor Jones CH CB CBE FRS (usually quoted RV Jones * 29. September 1911 in Dulwich , London ; † 17th December 1997 in Aberdeen ) was a British physicist who as a scientific intelligence officer an important role on the British side in the Second World War played .

Life

Jones went to school in Dulwich and studied physics at Oxford University . He graduated in 1932 and worked at the University's Clarendon Laboratory . In 1934 he received his doctorate there and received a scholarship in astronomy at Balliol College . From 1936 he worked on problems of air defense in the research center of the British Aviation Department in Farnborough . During the Second World War he worked for the British secret service as a scientist, which was a novelty at the time. In particular, he was responsible for evaluating the state of German military research and developing appropriate countermeasures. At an early stage he pointed out the authenticity of the " Oslo Report ", which the German physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer had anonymously sent to the British in 1939. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, he succeeded in analyzing the German radio-controlled bomber homing system Knickebein and subsequently initiating a series of successful countermeasures (which were adapted to the changes on the German side). As early as 1937 he had the idea of ​​jamming radar with strips of aluminum foil ( Düppel ), which was further developed on the British side by Joan Curran in 1942 and was then used for the first time in the air raids on Hamburg in 1943 . The Germans also had similar ideas, but both sides hesitated to commit out of fear of bringing the opponent to the same idea.

Jones was also an expert on the German V2 missile system and directed the deception of the Germans about the target successes in London with the help of the double-cross system of inverted German agents.

In 1946 he became a professor at the University of Aberdeen , where he stayed until his retirement in 1981. There he worked on improving a wide variety of measuring instruments.

In 1942 he became Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his role in Operation Biting , a commando company to capture German radar technology in Bruneval . In 1946 he became Companion of the Order of Bath (CB) and in 1994 a member of the Order of the Companions of Honor (CH). According to him, which is RV Jones Intelligence Award of the CIA named the first winner Jones was the 1,993th In 1949 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1965 of the Royal Society of London . He has received several honorary doctorates, including from his University in Aberdeen. After his semi-autobiographical book Most Secret War , a BBC documentary was made and aired in 1977. In 1981 he gave the prestigious Christmas lecture of the Royal Institution (From Magna Carta to Microchip).

Fonts

  • Most secret was: British scientific intelligence 1939–1945. Hamilton, London 1998 ISBN 1-85326-699-X (first edition 1978, American edition under the title: The wizard war).
  • New light on Star Wars: a contribution to the SDI debate. Center for Policy Studies, London 1985 ISBN 0-905880-89-7
  • Instruments and experiences. Wiley, Chichester, New York 1988 ISBN 0-471-91763-X
  • Reflections on intelligence. Heinemann, London 1989 ISBN 0-434-37724-4

Web links

  • Joseph McGeough: Professor Reginald Victor Jones . Ed .: Royal Society of Edinburgh . (English, org.uk [PDF; accessed on November 2, 2018]).
  • Robert Hanbury Brown : RV Jones 1911-1997 . In: Astronomy & Geophysics . tape 39 , no. 4 , August 1998, pp. 38 (English, oup.com [PDF]).
  • James Goodchild: RV Jones and the birth of scientific intelligence . Ed .: University of Exeter. 2013 (English, exeter.ac.uk [PDF] dissertation).
  • Alan Hayward: Catalog of the papers and correspondence of Reginald Victor Jones CH FRS (1911–1997) (=  NCUACS catalog . No. 95/8/00 ). 2000 (English, cam.ac.uk [PDF]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BILLION Foot: Obituary: Professor RV Jones. In: Independent . December 19, 1997, accessed November 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Reginald Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jones, RV
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Dulwich , London
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1997
Place of death Aberdeen