William Eifion Jones (1925 – March 2004) was a
Welsh marine
botanist, noted for his study of marine
algae.
He was born and brought up in
Aberystwyth and studied
botany at the
University of Wales under Professor Lilly Newton. He moved to
Bangor in 1953 to join the newly founded Marine Biology Station as a lecturer with Denis Crisp, and completed his PhD in 1957. He had a wife, Marian, and two children, Rhiannon and Aled.[1]
He retired early in 1986, but went on to lecture in
Kuwait, returning to do part-time lecturing at the
University of Wales, Bangor. He died in a car accident at Gaerwen, aged 79.[2]
He wrote A key to the Genera of the British Seaweeds (1962). It was most valuable as an update to Newton's Handbook of 1931 had become out-of-date and this was required to identify the
genera of
algae to be found on the
shores of the
British Isles.
He joined the
British Phycological Society[1] in 1955 and served as a Member of Council (1959 and 1974–1977), as Assistant Secretary (1959) and Hon. Treasurer (1964–1968). At the Eighth International Seaweed Symposium, held in Bangor in 1974, he was a member of the organizing committee and secretary. He was President of the
North Wales Wildlife Trust and
Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory.
Publications
Jones, W.E. 1956. Effect of spore coalescence on the early development of Gracilaria verrucosa (Hudson) Papenfuss. Nature, Lond. 178: 426 - 427.
Jones, W.E. 1958. Experiments on some effects of certain environmental factors on Gracilaria verrucosa (Huds.) Papenf. Journal of the Marine biological Association of the United Kingdom., 38: 153 - 167.
Jones, W.E. 1959. The growth and fruiting of Gracilaria verrucosa (Hudson) Papenfuss. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom., 38: 47 - 56.
Jones, W.E. 1962a. "A key to the genera of the British Seaweeds." Field Studies.1: No.4. pp. 1 – 32.
Jones, W.E. 1962b. The identity of Gracilaria erecta (Grev.) Grev. British phycological Bulletin2: 140 - 144.
Jones, W.E.(Ed.) 1968. Natural History of Anglesey. Anglesey Antiquarian Society, Llangefni.
Jones, W.E. and Moorjani, S.A. 1973. The attachment and early development of the tetraspores of some coralline red algae. Special Publications of the Marine Biological Associations of India.1973: 293 - 304.
Jones, W.E. 1974. Changes in the seaweed flora of the British Isles. In Hawkesworth, D.L. (Ed) The changing flora and fauna of Britain. pp. 97 – 113. Systematics Association Special Volume 6. Academic Press, London and New York.