Born at Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, on 6 December 1926, the son of Leslie William Jones MRCS, a general practitioner, and Prudence Mary, née Snelling, he was of the fourth generation in his family to become a doctor. He was educated at the Llanfairpwll Elementary School, Hillgrove School, Bangor, Epsom

John Alan William McKelvey was a consultant ophthalmologist for the Cornwall Hospitals Trust. He was born in 1932 into a farming family in Northern Ireland. He studied medicine at Queen's University, Belfast, qualifying in 1955. He held junior hospital posts at Belfast City Hospital, and in 1957