L. E. Jones

Sir Lawrence Evelyn Jones, 5th Baronet, MC, TD, FRSL (6 April 1885 – 6 September 1969), was an English writer, known for his light verse, humorous prose, a trilogy of reminiscences and three collections of short stories.

Life and career 1885–1945 Lawrence Evelyn Jones – known to his friends as "Jonah" and to readers as L. E. Jones – was born in London on 6 April 1885, the second son of Sir Lawrence Jones, 4th Baronet, and his first wife, Evelyn Mary, née Bevan (d 1912). The latter died in 1898, aged 14. At Eton, Jones became Captain of Boats and President of "Pop".

During the First World War Jones joined the Bedfordshire Yeomanry with which he went to France in June 1915. The following year he transferred to the newly formed Machine Gun Squadron and later to the Infantry. He was severely wounded and taken prisoner in 1918. He won the Military Cross, having earlier been awarded the Territorial Decoration, and retired as a major. He returned to merchant banking, from which he retired in 1945. He then turned to authorship. His comedy The Dove and the Carpenter, satirising peace conferences, opened at the Arts Theatre, London in 1946. He published books on religious and ethical topics, in which he addressed serious themes with a light touch, making what one critic called "excellent, wicked and unanswerable fun" of dogma with which he disagreed. In 1952 Jones's father died, aged 98, and as eldest surviving son, Jones inherited the baronetcy. Some of his pieces were published in 1951 under the title À la Carte; the book gained him the congratulations and friendship of Max Beerbohm. Anthony Powell wrote of the last that, although Jones had scored a hit with the first two, the third was even more interesting, and concluded, "Sir Lawrence is one of the Joneses who should definitely be kept up with". In 1961 Jones published The Bishop's Aunt, a collection of twelve short stories, described by Punch as "urbane, witty and inventive". A second collection, Trepidation in Downing Street, was equally well received: "written with elegance and wit and with the surest good taste". His final book was another volume of short stories, Father Lascaut Hits Back (1964). He died in London, aged 84, on 6 September 1969.

Books You and the Peace (with G. B. Shirlaw), Macmillan, 1944 The Bishop and the Cobbler, Secker and Warburg, 1948 Jesus, Discoverer and Genius: A Reintroduction for Modern Youth, Macmillan, 1948 Beyond Belief, Secker and Warburg, 1949 À la Carte, Secker and Warburg, 1951 Stings and Honey, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953 A Victorian Boyhood, Macmillan, 1955 An Edwardian Youth, Macmillan, 1956 Georgian Afternoon, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1958 I Forgot to Tell You, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959 The Bishop’s Aunt, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961 Trepidation in Downing Street, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962 Father Lascaut Hits Back, Chapman and Hall, 1964