John (Jack) Trengove Jones was born in Paarl, South Africa, on 20 February 1918, and was educated at Rondebosch Boys' High School and the University of Cape Town. He obtained his MB ChB at the beginning of the second world war, and later served with the South African Medical Corps in Egypt, at Springfield in Durban and at the Wynberg Military Hospital. On his return from Egypt during the war he married Joan McMillan, whom he had met as an undergraduate while she was nursing at Groote Schuur Hospital. He suffered a tragic personal loss when Joan died following a massive intussusception of the bowel and their son Peter, now a successful stockbroker in Cape Town, was delivered prematurely by Caesarian section. At the end of the war, Jack went into general practice in South Africa, but surgery had always been his first love and he decided to proceed overseas to London where he obtained his FRCS in 1951. Returning to South Africa he worked at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Capetown and then with Alger Sweetapple in Durban before being appointed general surgeon in Port Elizabeth. After retirement he went to live overseas and sadly died in Canada at the age of 70 from injuries received in a motoring accident on 28 January 1989. He was a charismatic person who lived life to the full and he took great pride in the achievements of his family. With his second wife, Margaret, he had two daughters, Susan and Angela, and a son, Guy, who became a successful plastic surgeon working in the USA.