John Jones

Sir John Jones was head of the British Security Service (MI5) from 1981 to 1985.Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 30 June 2009.
==Early life==
Jones was born in February 1923 in Easington, Durham, the son of coalminer Isaac Jones and his wife Isabel Raine.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571. He attended Nelson Grammar School, Cumberland and won a scholarship to Christ's College Cambridge, where he arrived in 1940.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571. During the Second World War, he served as an officer in the Royal Artillery.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571. He returned to Cambridge after the war, gaining a first in part two of the historical tripos, and a certificate in education.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571.
In 1947, he entered government service in Sudan as a teacher. In 1948, he married Daphne Redman, the daughter of another official in Sudan. In 1951, he moved to the education ministry, where he became the establishment officer.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571.
==MI5==
Jones returned to Britain in 1955, accepting an offer to join MI5.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571. His first postings were to Hong Kong and then to Singapore from 1959 to 1961.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.571.
On his return to London, he carried out the first study looking at the possibility of carrying out the computerisation of MI5 records.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572. He was then posted to MI5's overseas branch.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572.
===BSSO===
In 1968, Jones was seconded to the Ministry of Defence to head the British Services Security Organisation in Germany.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572. An account of the BSSO during this period by Richard Aldrich does not name Jones, but states that it was reorganised under a seconded MI5 officer from London, who beefed up the organisation's Berlin branch. This proved difficult as the BSSO chose to rely on locally-recruited staff in order to remain 'clean' of any links with the German security apparatus.Richard J. Aldrich, British intelligence, security and Western cooperation in Cold War Germany: The OstPolitik Years in Battleground Western Europe: intelligence operations in Germany and the Netherlands in the twentieth century, edited by Ben de Jong, Beatrice de Graaf, Wies Platje; Het Spinhuis, 2007, pp.134-135. Ian Cameron, who served as head of the Berlin Branch of the British Services Security Organisation (Germany) circa 1970-71, wrote to Jones in September 1970 warning that talks with Soviets could lead to a greater Soviet intelligence presence in West Berlin. In July 1971 he warned the Soviets had asked for an additional 81 officials and estimated at least 50 per cent would be intelligence officers.Extracts from National Archives file FCO 33/1546.
Jones was appointed CMG following this posting in 1972.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572.
===Overseas Branch===
Jones was briefly head of MI5's Overseas Branch.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572. This would probably have been E Branch, abolished in 1971.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.860.
===F Branch Chief===
Jones headed MI5's F Branch from 1972 to 1974.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.621. According to David Leigh, officers with a background on 'the industrial desk' such as Jones, 'David Ransome' and John Woodruffe, came to prominence in the early 1970s, because of Director Michael Hanley's prioritisation of counter-subversion.David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.209. Peter Wright described Jones as 'the rising star of F Branch in Hanley's new reorganization'.Peter Wright, Spycatcher, Viking, 1987, p.359. He also recounts a counter-subversion seminar early in Hanley's tenure at which Jones was a forceful advocate for the removal of restrictions on F Branch work.Peter Wright, Spycatcher, Viking, 1987, p.360.
According to Christopher Andrew, Jones concentrated on F Branch's counter-subversion role, paying little attention to the counter-terrorism part of its brief.Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.616. 
In 1972, he defined subversion as "activities threatening the safety of well-being of the State and intended to undermine or overthrow Parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means."Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.591.
===Deputy Director General===
Jones became Deputy Director General in 1976.Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 30 June 2009.
===Director General===
Jones became Director General in 1981.Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 30 June 2009. Peter Wright wrote of his appointment 'he was the first director-general since Hollis to have achieved it without any personal counter-espionage experience. He was an F Branch man through and through, and his appointment pefectly illustrated the shift in MI5's center of gravity.'Peter Wright, Spycatcher, Viking, 1987, p.359.
According to Hennessey and Thomas, It was early in Jones' tenure that Margaret Thatcher learned that Anthony Blunt was a Soviet spy.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.572. However, a Commons speech by Rupert Allason (Nigel West) places the key conversation in 1979:
::Sir John Jones, who was then director-general of the security service, said, "You must not expose Sir Anthony Blunt. He must be protected at all costs, because if he is publicly exposed as a spy, we shall all be in trouble. It will mean that we shall never be able to offer credible immunity from prosecution to others of his ilk." The Prime Minister considered that advice, and I imagine that because she is a barrister, she considered also that she might have had to stand by and watch Sir Anthony Blunt perjure himself, as he was going to do by bringing an action for defamation against an author. The Prime Minister decided, rightly in my view, that the security service's advice was wrong and that here was an opportunity for her to be frank. That is exactly what happened.Official Secrets, Hansard, 22 July 1988.
According to Stephen Dorril, Jones' position was weakened by the Geoffrey Prime case:
::Internally, MI5 appears to have been split between Jones's supporters, who came primarily from F Branch, and an opposition made up of the old guard of K Branch, who regarded their work as more important, and the younger officers, who had difficulty accepting the political role which the service, with its increased concentration on subversion, was expected to undertake.Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.486.
Hennessey and Thomas link Jones' resignation in 1985 to the Michael Bettaney case.Thomas Hennessey and Claire Thomas, Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5, Amberley Publishing, 2009, p.574.
==External Resources==
*Namebase: Jones John Lewis
*Tom Griffin, The boys from Berlin: The MI5 officers who covered up Kincora, Spinwatch, 12 August 2014.
==Notes==
Jones, JohnJones, John