Jones, Frederic Wood (1879 - 1954)

Summary

Frederic Wood Jones had chairs in anatomy at the University of Adelaide 1920-1930, University of Melbourne 1930-1938 and the University of Manchester from 1938. Earlier he had been Professor of Anatomy at the London School of Medicine for Women. While principally an anatomist, Jones's research interests ranged widely from coral atolls to the evolution of man and the South Australian mammalian fauna. He was considered a founding father of the field of physical anthropology on which he wrote widely. In South Australia Jones was a keen participant in the activities of the Anthropological Society of South Australia and, with Draper Campbell and John Cleland, urged the University of Adelaide to found the Board of Anthropological Research. He was the founding President of the McCoy Society for Research and Investigation, and co-founder of the Medical Sciences Club of South Australia

Details

Chronology

1903

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of London

1904

Education - MB BS, University of London

1905 - 1906

Career position - Medical Officer, Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, Cocos-Keeling Islands

1910

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc), University of London

1912 - 1915

Career position - Lecturer in anatomy, London School of Medicine for Women

1915 - 1919

Career position - Professor of Anatomy, London School of Medicine for Women

1919 - 1924

Career position - Curator of Anthropology, South Australian Institute

1920

Award - DSc honoris causa, University of Adelaide

1920 - 1927

Career position - Professor of Anatomy, University of Adelaide

1921 - 1925

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1921 - 1925

Career position - Member of Council, Royal Society of South Australia

1925

Award - R. M. Johnston Medal, Royal Society of Tasmania

1925

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1925 - 1926

Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of South Australia

1926

Award - Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1926

Career position - President, Section F (Ethnology and Anthropology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1926

Career position - Foundation President, Anthropological Society of South Australia

1926

Career event - Re-elected Member (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1926 - 1927

Career position - President, Royal Society of South Australia

1926 - 1927

Career position - Foundation Member, Board of Anthropological Research

1927 - 1929

Career position - Rockefeller Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawaii

1930 - 1937

Career position - Professor of Anatomy, University of Melbourne

1930 - 1954

Award - Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons, United Kingdom

1930 - c. 1954

Career event - Re-elected Member (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1934

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1935

Career position - Foundation President, McCoy Society for Research and Investigation

1935 - 1936

Career event - Leader, excursion to Lady Julia Percy Island, Victoria, McCoy Society for Research and Investigation

1938 - 1948

Career position - Professor of Anatomy, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

1941

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1943 - 1945

Career position - President, Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

1948 - 1951

Career position - Sir William Collins Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy and Conservator of the Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Royal College of Surgeons, England

• Frederic Wood Jones - Records, 1897 - 1940; Royal College of Surgeons, England. Details

Published resources

Books

• Christophers, Barry E., A List of the Published Works of Frederic Wood Jones 1879-1954 (Melbourne: Greensborough Press, 1974), 47 pp. Details
• Jones, Ross, Anatomists of empire: evolution and the discovery of human biology in the British world (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2020), 295 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Jones, Ross L., 'Human remains' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne - Volume 1: The Truth, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. 95-106. https://www.mup.com.au/books/dhoombak-goobgoowana-paperback-softback. Details
• MacCallum, M., 'Jones, Frederick Wood (1879-1954), anatomist, naturalist and anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 510-512. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090507b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Christophers, Barry E., 'Frederic Wood Jones: His Activities during the Boer War, the First World War and World War II, and His Attitude to War', in Reflections on Medical History and Health in Australia. Third National Conference on Medical History and Health in Australia edited by Harold Attwood and Geoffrey Kenny (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Medical History Unit, 1986), pp. 241-250.. Details
• Guest, James S., 'Frederic Wood Jones: His Impact on Australian Medicine and Scientific Thought', in Australian Society of the History of Medicine, The Impact of the Past on the Present: Second National Conference of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine edited by Peter Winterton and Des Gurry (Perth: Australian Society of the History of Medicine, 1991), pp. 184-188.. Details

Edited Books

• Christophers, Barry E. ed., A List of the Works of Frederic Wood Jones 1879-1954 (Melbourne: the author, 1985), 164 pp. Details
• Christophers, Barry E. ed., A Supplement to a List of the Works of Frederic Wood Jones 1879-1954 (Melbourne: the author, 1988), 78 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Frederic Wood Jones', Australian Journal of Science, 17 (3) (1954), 95. Details
• Christophers, Barry E., 'Frederic Wood Jones, Artist and Illustrator', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 62 (1) (1992), 69-69. Details
• Christophers, Barry E., 'Frederic Wood Jones Empathy with Living Creatures', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 63 (1993), 399-306. Details
• Christophers, Barry E., 'Frederic Wood Jones: His Academic Medals and those they Honoured', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 65 (1995), 122-134. Details
• Christophers, Barry E., 'Frederic Wood Jones: His Major Books and How They Were Reviewed', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 67 (9) (1997), 645-659. Details
• Clark, W. E. L. G., 'Frederic Wood Jones 1879-1954', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1 (1955), 118-26. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1955.0009. Details
• Clark, W. E. Le Gros, 'In memoriam: Frederic Wood Jones, D.Sc., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., 1879-1954; an appreciation', Journal of anatomy, 89 (2) (1955), 255-67. Details
• Elmslie, R. G., 'The Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture: our honoured anatomists', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 51 (5) (1981), 415-9. Details
• Jones, F. Wood, 'Lady Julia Percy Island: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, ns, 49 (1937), 327-437. Details
• Jones, Frederick Wood, 'The McCoy Society's expedition to Lady Julia Percy Island', Nature, 138 (28 November) (1936), 906-8. Details
• Jones, Ross L., '"No interest in human anatomy as such": Frederic Wood Jones dissects anatomical investigation in the United States in the 1920s', Endeavour, 38 (1) (2014), 35-42. Details
• Kelly, M., 'Frederic Wood Jones (1879-1954): an optimistic biologist', Perspectives in biology and medicine, 4 (2) (1961), 159-68. Details
• Sunderland, Sydney, 'The Melbourne Medical School and some of Its "characters" 1931 - 1975', Chiron: journal of the University of Melbourne Medical Society, 2 (2) (1992), 45-52. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5497172. Details
• Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society [Online resource], Royal Society of London, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1955.0009. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/71637770. Details
• 'Jones, F Wood (1879-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1141317. Details
• 'Awarded honorary DSc, 1934', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

See also

• Jones, P. G., 'South Australian anthropological history: the Board for Anthropological Research and its early expeditions', Records of the South Australian Museum, 20 (1987), 71-92. Details
• Jones, Ross L. ; Waghorne, James; and Langton, Marcia, 'Introduction' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne - Volume 1: The Truth, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. xiii-xxix, https://www.mup.com.au/books/dhoombak-goobgoowana-paperback-softback. Details
• Jones, Ross L.; Farley, Simon, 'Indigenous knowledge' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne - Volume 1: The Truth, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. 311-321, https://www.mup.com.au/books/dhoombak-goobgoowana-paperback-softback. Details
• Long, Rohan, 'The McCoy Society's 1936 expedition to Lady Julia Percy Island: specimens in the Tiegs Zoology Museum', University of Melbourne Collections, 21 (2017), 3-11. Details
• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 261, 262. Details
• Stephens, C.G.; and Quirk, J.P., 'James Arthur Prescott 1890-1987', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (3) (1988), 299-313. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9880730299. Details