Product Description

Thoroughly researched and including much new material, this biography is written with the cooperation of H. Jones's widow and is published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of his death at the climax of the Falklands War. It is the story of an emblematic but complex war hero whose family history was surprising, whose army life included exposure to most of the military problems which Britain has encountered since the Second World War (including security in Northern Ireland, where H. Jones was in command of the search for Robert Nairac), and whose dramatic death and subsequent posthumous VC symbolized an extraordinary campaign which was truly the end of an era. Sir John Wilsey was a close friend and army colleague of H. Jones. The biography is introduced by Sir John Keegan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286250 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-06
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Synopsis
This is the biography of the H. Jones VC, a Falklands War hero whose death in the battle for Darwin had huge significance and was one of the turning points for the whole campaign. It is the story of an emblematic but complex war hero whose family history was surprising, whose army life included exposure to most of the military problems which Britain has encountered since the World War II, including security in Northern Ireland. His dramatic death and subsequent posthumous VC symbolized an extraordinary campaign which was truly the end of an era. Including much new material, this biography was written with the help of H. Jones's widow and is introduced by Sir John Keegan.

From the Publisher
The biography, written by the Commander-in-Chief Land Command, of the Falklands War hero whose death in the battle for Darwin had huge significance and was one of the turning points in the whole campaign.

About the Author
General Sir John Wilsey GCB CBE DL, left the Army in 1996 as C-in-C Land Command. In this capacity he was responsible for commanding and delivering the operational capability of the British Army worldwide. He has also been Joint Commander of operations in the former republic of Yugoslavia and GOC Northern Ireland. He has taught at Sandhurst and was a close friend of H. Jones. He is now Chairman of Western Provident, Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and Chairman of Salisbury Cathedral Council. This is his first book.

Customer Reviews

Does the author achieve his aim?
In this ably written biography, Wilsey portrays ‘H’ Jones as something of a buffoon and eccentric, privileged with wealth and a general misfit. His short fuse, outspokenness and desire to micromanage all situations and persons about him, neither endear H to subordinates nor senior officers alike. His saving grace and rapid promotion are due to his tenacious and diligent approach to his work and obsessive understanding of military theory and history. While this book makes for interesting reading from many angles -historical, regimental, leadership being among them- the author tries to mask the inadequacies of H in order to portray a modern day hero. In this the work is unsuccessful. If H was the best of his generation, one wonders for the rest!

A first hand account of the life and times of a modern hero.
In fluid, elegant and eminently readable style, John Wilsey provides a fascinating contemporary insight into the English public school, the complex and sometimes subtle workings of life in the army, as well as the early stages of the Falklands conflict from the military point of view. These accounts exude the authority and detail which only first hand knowledge can impart.

The book is really about H Jones though. Told with greater warmth and sensitivity than many will readily associate with senior military figures, it is in effect the story of the man who apparently had everything, but who strove for and succeeded in achieving, both personally and professionally, all that money and privilege cannot buy.

So far as his demise on the Falklands is concerned, Wilsey demonstrates convincingly that H did all the right things, for all the right reasons and to good effect. Even H's good fortune was finite though, as foreshadowed by earlier events such as the broken collar bone he sustained in the mess rugger and his car being identified after the incident on the roof at the Dartmouth Commissioning Ball.

This thoroughly enjoyable book, which would translate admirably to the large or the small screen, leaves the reader genuinely sorry to have finished it.

A fine book about a fascinating man written in good prose.
John Wilsey has written a splendid book about perhaps the last soldier officer of an era his death helped to end. H Jones VC can be read for three topics. First Jones life as a young officer spent in Belize, Germany, Kenya and God knows which tiresome spots in the back of beyond. His wealth, high intelligence and ambition got him more lumps than plaudits. He worked hard, and not on the backs of his juniors, to climb his army's greasy pole. In the end he had become or rather made himself the consummate infantry officer. Kipling would have found all this all too familiar.
Second, the book is a tale of family life spent under the contradictory conditions of materiel ease and the normal hardships of a peripatetic life that the dwindling empire still demanded of its serving officers. Jones comes across as a devoted family man, caring husband and interested father who preferred the intimacies of home life to the smarmy workings of regimental politics.
Last, Wilsey tells of Jones' last hours as he led his 2 Para into the battle for Darwin Hill and Goose Green during the Falklands War of 1982. The going gets meticulous here because Wilsey must dispose of two issues that have bedeviled Jones reputation from the moment of his death. Did Jones blunder into a near disaster that he failed to avert? Wilsey's common sense answer is no. Jones may have died heroically, in a fit of rage or in a moment of lost self-control. But such was Jones' imprint of his tactical views on his men, such was his rigorous training of them and such was his preparation for battle that it was inescapably Jones' soldiers that triumphed. Did one or more of Jones' men shoot him as he ran towards enemy lines? Almost certainly not. The detailed medical evidence put forth as a result of Surgeon Captain Jolly's post mortem done before Jones' burial makes it all but open and shut that Jones was killed from an Argentine trench that he had inadvertently passed and overlooked.
The prose here is graceful. The book should have been written and should be read by all interested in a complex man who died in an unnecessary battle before he could contribute to his country's life and history.