Canon John Eric Gethyn-Jones MBE FSA (9 October 1909 – 9 November 1995)[1] was a clergyman and historian of Gloucestershire. He served in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department during the Second World War for which he was awarded the MBE in 1945.[2] Later he was vicar of St Mary of the Virgin's Church, Berkeley, and rose to the position of Canon. He wrote a number of works including books on the history of Dymock and Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
John Eric Gethyn-Jones was born on 9 October 1909 in Wales. His father, Daniel Gethyn-Jones was a man of the cloth and his mother, Edith Gethyn-Jones (née James), the daughter of a vicar.[3] He attended The Crypt School, Gloucester, and went on to study at the University of Oxford (Pembroke College, Oxford) and Queen's College, Birmingham.[1] His thesis on English Romanesque sculpture was submitted to the University of Bristol in the 1940s.[4] He joined the Territorial Army, now called Army Reserve (United Kingdom), in 1937[1] and was awarded the Territorial Decoration, a military medal for long service. In 1960 he was appointed Assistant Chaplain General of the Territorial Army and honorary Chaplain to the Queen.[3]
Gethyn-Jones was ordained a priest in 1935[1] and eventually succeeded his father as vicar of St Mary's Church, Dymock, in 1955.[5] He remained its incumbent until 1967.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department and was awarded the MBE in 1945[6] for bravery in Normandy having been involved with the rescue of wounded soldiers on the ill-fated ship MV Derrycunihy (1943) in 1944.[1]
From 1967 to 1977 he was vicar of St Mary of the Virgin's Church, Berkeley.[7]
Amongst other publications he wrote a number of works on the history of Berkeley and Dymock, both in Gloucestershire. A long-standing member of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1961.[1]
Dymock is renowned for the Dymock poets, one of whom was the American poet Robert Frost. The Reverend Gethyn-Jones wrote about these poets in his first publication and in 1957 he was approached by the American Embassy with a request to escort Robert Frost, on a visit to receive an honorary degree from the University of Oxford, around the area in which he resided during a brief spell in England from 1912 to 1915.[8]
As vicar of Berkeley he resided in The Chantry, the former home of Edward Jenner, pioneer of the smallpox vaccination. It was always the wish of Reverend Gethyn-Jones that a smaller vicarage could be built so the house could be turned into a museum to honour Jenner[3] and he was a founder member of The Jenner Trust in 1966.[1] Following a visit to The Chantry by two Japanese immunologists,[3] the Trust later received a large cheque from the Japanese business Ryōichi Sasakawa. The Chantry was purchased from the Church of England in 1985 and is now a museum known as Dr. Jenner's House.
Photographs contributed by Reverend John Eric Gethyn-Jones to the Conway Library are currently being digitised by the Courtauld Institute of Art, as part of the Courtauld Connects project.[9]
Gethyn-Jones died in Leicester on 9 November 1995.[10] His correspondence, notes, slides and books were donated to the County Record Office, the Gloucester Collection, the B.G.A.S. Library, the Gloucester Regimental Museum and the Jenner Museum.[1]
