Person
Jones, Owen (1888 - 1955)
- Born
- 1888
Farringdon, United Kingdom - Died
- 7 February 1955
Rotorua, New Zealand - Occupation
- Forester and Public servant
Summary
Owen Jones studied forestry at the University of Oxford and between 1911 and 1917 was among the first cohort of professionally qualified foresters to be employed by the Forest Department in Ceylon. In 1919 he was appointed as the inaugural Chairman of the Victorian Forests Commission. In this role he was responsible for managing the conservation of forest areas while meeting the demand for timber. Increasingly he found himself fighting against political decisions around the alienation of forest land for settlement and public scepticism about the purpose of forestry. He also found it difficult to find qualified foresters. Jones left Victoria in 1925 to join New Zealand Perpetual Forests working mainly on afforestation projects. After WWII he worked as a forestry consultant in New Zealand.
Details
Chronology
- 1910
- Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Oxford
- 1911
- Education - Diploma in Forestry, University of Oxford
- 1911 - 1916
- Career position - Assistant Forester, Forest Department, Ceylon [Under H. F. Tomalin]
- 1916 - 1917
- Career position - Forester in charge, Colombo District, Forest Department, Ceylon
- 1917 - 1918
- Military service - First World War. Served with the Royal Flying Corps [Wounded in France]
- 1919
- Life event - Moved to Victoria, to take up appointment as Chairman, Victorian Forests' Commission
- 1919 - 1925
- Career position - Chairman, Forests Commission Victoria
- 1925 - 1939
- Career position - Forester, New Zealand Perpetual Forests
- 1939 - 1945
- Military service - Second World War. Captain, 14th Forestry Company, New Zealand Army
- 1945 -
- Career position - Consultant to New Zealand Perpetual Forests
- 1946 - 1948
- Career position - President, New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Related entries
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Michael Roche, 'Owen Jones: inaugural Chair of the Forests Commission of Victoria, 1919 - 1925', Australian Forest History Society Newsletter, 74 (2018), 4-5. Details
- Poole, A. D., 'Owen Jones', New Zealand journal of forestry, 7 (1) (1955), 9-10. Details
- Roche, Michael, 'Practice in place in Empire forestry: Owen Jones in Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand, 1911 - 1955', International review of environmental history, 6 (2) (2020), 113-32. https://doi.org/10.22459/IREH.06.02.2020.07. Details
- Roche, Michael, 'Owen Jones: a select bibliography 1920 - 1948', Australian Forest History Society Newsletter, 80 (2020), 23. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 5 April 2022, Last modified: 18 July 2025