JONES, GWILYM CLEATON (1875 - 1961), bank manager in Cape Town and Johannesburg;

Born 25 March 1875 in Llanrug, Caernarfonshire, the second son of John Eiddon Jones and Sarah Jones. His father was a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Wales. He supported D. Lloyd George and in a letter of sympathy which the statesman sent to his widow from the National Liberal Club dated 16 October 1903, he acknowledged that it was Eiddon Jones who had first asked him to stand in an election for the Caernarfon boroughs. Cleaton Jones was educated at Bala grammar school. He succeeded in the introductory examination of the Incorporated Law Society of England and Wales in 1889. By 1893 he had started working with Williams Company, Old Bank, Chester. He emigrated to South Africa (Cape Colony at the time) in November 1902, soon after the death of his elder brother, Eiddon Rhys, of whom he thought highly. He joined the National Bank of South Africa, Ltd. He was promoted accountant and manager of the Cape Town office and later moved to a similar post in Johannesburg. When he retired on 25 March 1936 he was the general assistant manager for South Africa in the Dominion, Colonial and Overseas Department of Barclays Bank. In July 1940 the Governor General appointed him honorary national treasurer of the National War Fund. He was also manager of the Heynes Mathew Co., Ltd. from 1937 until 1958. He acted as honorary treasurer of the Cape Western Regional Committee South African Institute of Race Relations. On the strength of his ability as an administrator as well as his legal knowledge, he was invited to serve on a sub-committee called to form a constitution for the Institute of Bankers of South Africa. He became a member of council of that body. He was a warm-hearted Welshman and a leading member of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town Welsh Societies. He was also prominent within the Methodist Church as a Sunday school superintendent, teacher, elder, secretary and president of the Welsh church in Cape Town. He displayed the same commitment in Johannesburg. He preached in Welsh and he supported the Cape Town eisteddfod from the outset. He was admitted to the Gorsedd of Bards under the name ' Ab Eiddon ' in the national eisteddfod at Denbigh in 1939 and was one of the vice-presidents of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. His youngest brother was John David Rheinallt Jones, and he was an ardent admirer of his efforts as director of the South African Institute of Race Relations. He had four sisters. He married (1) Esther Anne Davies, Llandeilo; one son and four daughters were born to them. Their son died in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1941 where he was serving as a captain in the Transvaal Scottish Regiment. After his wife's death in 1940 he married (2) Mrs. Alice Lilian Williams, Johannesburg. Cleaton Jones died in Cape Town 30 September 1961 and was cremated.

Author

• Gwilym Arthur Jones, (1925 - 1998)

Sources

• Information from his daughter, Mrs. Mair Lubynski, Camps Bay, Cape Town

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20748832

Published date: 2001

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/