Talk:Reginald Victor Jones

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Untitled[edit]

R.V. Jones was fond of practical jokes and describes in his book how used that skill to deceive the Germans during the war. It may not be coincidence that shortly after many of the secrets of the scientific war were revealed in the 1970's, he appeared on television programmes on the BBC and ITV (commercial television) broadcast at exactly the same time on the same subject and was referred to in the press as "Old Twin Fees"! Man with two legs 18:08, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Just a personal anecdote of the man.

Jones was a marvellous raconteur. I wan honoured that he accepted an invitation to speak at a free lecture I organised in Manchester UK, for the student engineering society, about 10 years before he died. Our usual meetings were attended by around 50 people. We had enough interest to book a 300 seat lecture room. On the night, it was standing room only, and we turned people away.

The audience sat in rapt silence for an hour and half (usual running time was an hour), at the end, after a standing ovation, Jones gave a 1/4 hour encore !

I took him for dinner afterwards, when he was every bit as interesting as he had been in the lecture. A n inveterate name dropper, he asked if I had read "Spycatcher" - I said I hadn't "Only the CIA sent me a copy" said Jones.

Steve Taylor

Companion of Honour[edit]

The article on the order of the Companions of Honour fails to list Prof. Jones, but the biography says he was recognized in the 1994 Queen's Birthday List. Somebody who has an authoritative list of CH members should reconcile the two.

Peter.zimmerman (talk) 05:27, 8 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Companion of Honour only lists the current members of the order, since Jones is dead he is not a current Companion. He was definitely appointed to the Order in 1994 as the London Gazette that is linked to in a footnote proves (the gazette is the definitive record of who was honoured). One of those listed as a a current member who was appointed CH in 1997 or 1998 will have taken the place formerly held by Jones (since there is a maximum number of living members, a new Companion can only be appointed when there is vacancy caused by the death of a previous Companion - or possibly if an honour is revoked for some reason, I'm not sure if there is provision for this in the statutes of the order). David Underdown (talk) 09:35, 8 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Watch[edit]

Does it mean anythonig when a man wears tow watches, one one on each arm. And one is obviliously a female style one. R.V. Jones The Secret War Part I. BBC --88.153.18.118 (talk) 21:18, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There's the 1977 series The Secret War on YouTube ATM; [1] if anyone wants to use if for source material. First (linked) programme is on 'The Battle of the Beams' i.e., Knickebein, X-Gerat, Y-Gerat, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.68.219 (talk) 17:10, 28 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
One may have been set to local time, the other set to a time-zone where he had family or friends that he telephoned. It may have been his wife's, which he wore in memory of her - some widows do the same thing with their ex-husband's watch. And Jones being a well-known practical joker, he may have worn it just to make people say 'Why is he wearing two watches?' See also the info about 'Two Fees' above. Two TV appearances at the same time ... ?

2001:44B8:3102:BB00:C8B0:5342:7178:7DC4 (talk) 10:17, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Dead link[edit]

The link at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/pdf/v38i5a05p.pdf which is now dead and someone removed is probably now at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol38no5/pdf/v38i5a05p.pdf. However it is largely by Jones, not on him, and I have not actually restored it as an external link. Thincat (talk) 19:38, 12 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Someone restored the dead link so I have updated the article. Thincat (talk) 18:12, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Photograph[edit]

I'm not too impressed with the picture at present. Is one of him on his own not available? (The existing image could stay, but further down the page). RASAM (talk) 21:10, 20 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Unexplained Aerial Activity[edit]

As Assistant Director of Intelligence, Jones investigated quite a lot of Unexplained Aerial Activity. He briefly mentions some of this in Ch.52 of his book Most Secret War. He might have reprised the Flying Saucer Working Party when brought back into government in 1952, after the October 21st Meteor incident, and those of Exercise Mainbrace. It might be thought wacky, but it was genuine work he was involved in, and taken very seriously at the time. I think it should be mentioned in the post war career section of the article, if we can find some information and references.JBel (talk) 00:51, 26 November 2017 (UTC) JBel (talk)[reply]