Local politics Jones entered municipal politics in Liverpool first becoming a member of the
City Council in 1908. He was later created an
Alderman and served as
Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 1938 to 1942. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Lancashire for the year 1929-1930 and also served as a
Justice of the Peace. Jones was
knighted in the
1937 Coronation Honours. During the early years of Second World War, when the city was the subject of severe bombing attacks from the enemy, he was a prominent member of the Liverpool Emergency Committee and he set up the Air Raid Distress Fund to help victims of the bombing. He later had the honour, as Lord Mayor, of greeting Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill on his surprise visit to Liverpool on 27 September 1941. He was made an honorary
freeman of the City of Liverpool. The institution later rewarded him with an Honorary
Doctorate of Laws. Jones was an avid art collector. Among the items he left to the university were illuminated manuscripts, watercolours and ceramics. His collections were not inherited family heirlooms but were collected by him during his lifetime. He had already made a gift to the university of his collection of fine English china in 1939.
Parliamentary candidate Jones was selected as Liberal candidate for the constituency of
Liverpool West Derby for the
general election of 1923. In a straight fight with the sitting
Conservative MP, Sir
William Hall, he gained a majority of 1,990 votes. The
1922 general election had also been a straight fight but on that occasion Sir William Hall had been opposed by a
Labour candidate with no Liberal intervention. Whether this taking it in turns to contest the seat represented some kind of formal arrangement between the parties is not clear but it was reported that the Labour Party was working with Jones in the election and this was expected to be politically very helpful. However, by the
1924 general election, the
Tory Party had revived and the contest in West Derby was now a three-cornered affair with Jones facing a new Conservative opponent,
John Sandeman Allen as well as Labour's T G Adams. As a result, Jones lost the seat to the Conservatives, with Labour gaining second place. He did not stand for Parliament again. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1929. ==Death==