A Retail Dynasty plus a whole lot more!
There's no other store like David Jones and it seems that for the Jones family there is no other Cemetery than Rookwood – well for almost all of the immediate family that is.
Although David Jones may not
be a "forgotten" Australian, it only seems fitting to remember the
man who founded Australia's premier Department store now celebrating it's 185th
anniversary - the actual anniversary was last week on 24th May.
Today's blog lists a little
about the man himself and prominent members of his family including those that
took the reins of the company.
THE DAVID JONES DYNASTY
David Jones was born in
March 1793 in Wales, the son of Thomas Jones, a farmer and his wife Nancy. Aged
15 he left home and was apprenticed to a grocer in Carmarthen. At 18 he was
offered and accepted the management of a general store in Wales and in 1813
married Catherine Hughes who died a year later in childbirth. He married
Elizabeth Williams in 1822 who also departed life young four years later.
Jones headed to London and
found work with a retailer in Oxford Street. He did well and entered the firm
of R.N. Nicholls. He married Jane Mander in 1828, her family being fierce
Independents. Through the Independents he met Charles Appleton, who had opened
a store in Sydney Australia. He soon resigned from Nicholls and entered into a partnership
with Appleton and set sail with his family for Australia in 1834.
In 1835 he was in Sydney and
Appleton’s business became Appleton & Jones which thrived until a falling
out in 1838 where the partnership was dissolved. David Jones moved his business
to premises on the corner of George Street and Barrack Lane (which operated
until the 1990’s and now houses the Sydney CBD Nespresso outlet).
Jones survived the depression
of the 1840’s and business prospered. He retired from active management in 1856
and took in partners. The business failed and faced with bankruptcy he bought them out and returned to manage the firm.
EDWARD LLOYD JONES
Edward was the youngest of
David and Jane’s sons and was born in Sydney in 1844. From a very early age he
was groomed to take on a large role in the business. As such he began in the
fancy goods department of the firm. He soon became a partner with Mr. Woodward and Mr. Edwards and upon their retirement he became the senior member of the firm. He
married Helen Ann Jones, a distant relative, in 1868 and they went on to have
six children.
He and his associates saw
the business grow. Edward made many trips to the UK on fact finding missions to
keep abreast of the latest trends.
He had spent some time in
the early 1890’s with family there and returned in 1892 to oversee additions to
new buildings for the expansion of retail space in order to keep the store its
status as a high-end establishment.
In 1894 he was one of the many
killed in the Redfern rail disaster which I blogged about on 21st
March this year.
EDWARD LLOYD JONES JNR.
Edward Lloyd Jones Jnr. was
born in Sydney, the fourth of six children of Edward Lloyd Jones and the grandson
of David Jones. At eighteen years of age, he went to England and entered the London
office of David Jones. On his return to Australia, he gained pastoral and cattle
experience in the Burnett District of Queensland. He re-entered the family
business upon the death of his father in 1894. David Jones was operating as a
private company but in 1906 it became a limited liability company. Jones Jnr.
then became chairman of directors, a position he held until he resigned in
1920.
From 1921, Jones devoted his
attention to the breeding of beef shorthorn cattle in Singleton NSW where in
1915, he had established a cattle stud. His shorthorns won many prizes at the
Sydney Royal Easter Show and Royal Melbourne Show. Later he purchased a
property at Tarcutta.
Jones married his cousin,
Jane Mander Jones, the daughter of Sir Philip Sydney Jones in 1897. They had four
children. In 1911 after Jane’s death two years earlier, he married her younger
sister, Sarah Ruby Jones, and had two more children. He died in 1934 at his
Tarcutta property a week after his mother’s death. He was cremated at Rookwood
Cemetery.
SIR CHARLES LLOYD JONES
Jones was born in 1878 and
was Edward Lloyd Jones Jnr’s younger brother. He studied art at the Julian
Ashton Art School and the Slade School of Fine Art in London but was unable to
fulfil his ambition of becoming a professional. He later trained as a tailor
and worked in that profession for several years in England before returning to
Australia in 1902.
Charles worked in the family
company in the clothing factory before transferring to the advertising department.
When David Jones Ltd became listed as a public company in 1906 he was appointed
as a director. In 1920 he succeeded his elder brother as chairman, a position
he held until his death in 1958. During his term, David Jones expanded
significantly, opening a second major store in Elizabeth Street in 1927 and
later a third on the corner of Market and Castlereagh streets in 1938 to mark
the centenary of the company.
As both an artist himself
and a patron of the arts in Sydney, Jones established the David Jones Art
Gallery in the Elizabeth Street store in 1944, under the direction of Sir John Ashton.
The Sir Charles Lloyd Jones Memorial Prize was named in his honour. A promoter
of Sydney artists and in particular the work of William Dobell who painted his
portrait in 1951, which is now held in the National Portrait Gallery Canberra.
He was also the publisher of “Art in Australia”. He was the inaugural Chairman
of the ABC 1932-34 and acting chairman of the Australian National Travel Association
when in 1934 it launched “Walkabout” magazine. In the 1951 New Year’s Honours
list he was made a Knight Bachelor.
DAVID LLOYD JONES
David was the eldest son of
Sir Charles Lloyd Jones and his third wife, Hannah Benyon Jones. David was only
25 years old when he was elected Alderman for City Ward on 1st
December 1956. He served until 4th December 1959 when he resigned due
to business commitments as after his father’s death in 1958, he became the Chairman
of Directors and Joint Managing Director of David Jones Ltd. Like his father,
he was patron of artistic and cultural organizations in Sydney. In March 1961,
within weeks of being diagnosed with cancer, David died aged 30.
He is buried with his father
and other family members.
CHARLES BENYON LLOYD JONES
Charles, David’s younger
brother took over the reins of the Company as its new chairman. He was
credited with the adoption of the distinctive DJs houndstooth livery (inspired
by a bottle of Miss Dior perfume his mother had) as well as leaving some substantial
legacies. While he was chairman, David Jones Properties was established and the
David Jones Awards for Fashion Excellence, which led to the Australian Fashion
Awards. David Jones expanded into other states and into the west coast of
America. The David Jones Food Hall was opened in Market Street which was a game
changer in relation to meals and food preparation from a department store point
of reference. He served upon a number of Boards and was the President of the
Australian Retailers Association.
He was the last of the Jones' with a direct link to the man who started the company in 1838 to be in
charge of the company.
Although not buried in
Rookwood he is included in this blog due to his direct link to the Company.
DAVID MANDER JONES
David was born in 1834 the
eldest son of David Jones and his wife Jane. He married a cousin, Emily Ann
Jones and he and his brother George took up a large property “Boonara” on the
Darling Downs in Queensland. He died in 1864.
SIR PHILIP SYDNEY JONES
Philip was the second son of
David Jones and his wife Jane. Well educated, he went to London in 1853 to
study medicine at University College. During his course he took the medals for
anatomy and medicine, graduated M.B. in 1859, M.D. in 1860, and became a fellow
of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1861.
Jones was awarded the
Fellowes gold medal given to the most proficient student in clinical knowledge.
He married Hannah Howard Charter in 1863.
Jones was house surgeon and
a resident medical officer at University College hospital for a time and then
went to Paris, where he continued his studies. He returned in Sydney in 1861 and was an honorary surgeon at the Sydney Hospital and carried on a general
practice as well. Jones was the first surgeon in Sydney to remove an ovarian
tumour successfully.
In 1876, Jones gave up
general practice, and established himself as a consultant physician. He went
back to Europe for a time studying developments in medicine and hospital
practice. Returning to Sydney he was appointed an honorary consulting physician
to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and was then considered to the leading physician
in Sydney. He was President of the NSW branch of the British Medical
Association.
Philip Sydney Jones was knighted
in 1905 for his work in combating tuberculosis and died in Sydney in 1918 survived by
three sons and four daughters. He is buried in a separate plot but in the same
general vicinity of his father’s grave.
When his father became
gravely ill in 1866 it was Philip who navigated him through that time, and he
made a remarkable recovery. David Jones retired from the Company in 1868.
David Jones died at his home
in Liverpool Street, Sydney, on 29th March 1873. His wife died three
weeks later.
There are many more direct descendants of David Jones located within the Necropolis but to mention them all would render this blog one that would carry on for pages! There are also many more in other places of burial or cremation throughout Australia.
I have included a photo of
the monument at the burial plot of David Jones. I have also included a photo of
one of the direct descendants at the unveiling of the newly restored monument
with a storyboard (donated by the Friends of Rookwood) that occurred on 24 May
2021.
I have drawn the majority of
my information for this blog from Ancestry.com, the Australian Dictionary of
Biography and Wikipedia.
As I was meandering through
the David Jones Elizabeth Street store in Sydney the other day I had that
wonderful theme from the not-so-distant past in my head – “There’s no other
store like David Jones..”
What a legacy that David Jones, the son of a Welsh farmer, left behind. Astonishing!
If you have any comments
about this blog please add them below or at the Facebook Group page which can
be found under a search for
rookwoodcemeterydiscoveries
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Until next week!!
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