Robert Jones was born in
Llandudno, North Wales, and was brought up in London. His father gave up his career as an architect to take up writing, so his family became quite poor. At the age of 16 he left London to live with his uncle,
Hugh Owen Thomas, in Liverpool. He learned about
fracture care and the manufacture of braces from his uncle, and attended the Liverpool School of Medicine from 1873 to 1878. He continued to work with his uncle, and was subsequently appointed Honorary Assistant Surgeon to the Stanley Hospital in Liverpool in 1887. At this time, Jones and his uncle were among the few surgeons interested in the treatment of fractures, while the majority of orthopaedic surgery was aimed at correcting deformity in children and was carried out by general surgeons.
Manchester Ship Canal In 1888 he was appointed Surgeon-Superintendent for the construction of the
Manchester Ship Canal, responsible for the injured among the 20,000 workers during the seven-year project. He organised the first comprehensive accident service in the world, dividing the 36-mile site into 3 sections, and establishing a hospital and a string of first aid posts in each section. He staffed the hospitals with medical personnel trained in fracture management. The hospitals were linked by a railway which ran the length of the canal, and Sir Robert could be contacted in Liverpool by
telegraphy if his presence was required. He personally managed 3,000 cases and performed 300 operations in his own hospital. This position enabled him to learn new techniques and improve the standard of fracture management. the first published clinical radiograph.
The Jones fracture Robert Jones described the fracture of the fifth metatarsal which bears his name in the
Annals of Surgery in 1902. In his paper, Jones described the fracture in a series of six patients, the first of which was himself. He had injured his foot while dancing several months earlier, and had thought the injury to be to a tendon in the foot. He examined himself the day after the injury, and found that the tendon was intact, but he could not find definite evidence of bony injury. He asked a colleague, David Morgan, to X-ray his foot, and a fracture above the base of the fifth metatarsal was found. The finding of similar fractures in several patients after his own prompted him to write about it. He also noted that the fracture was not caused by direct trauma to the bone, as had always been assumed before, but by a cross-strain being applied to the bone.
First World War At the outbreak of the
First World War Jones was mobilised as a
Territorial Army surgeon in the
Royal Army Medical Corps. He observed that treatment of fractures both at the front and in hospitals at home was inadequate, and his efforts led to the introduction of military orthopaedic hospitals. He was appointed Inspector of Military Orthopaedics, with responsibility over 30,000 beds. The hospital in Ducane Road,
Hammersmith became the model for both British and
American military orthopaedic hospitals. His advocacy of the use of
Thomas splint for the initial treatment of
femoral fractures resulted in a dramatic reduction in morbidity and mortality from this injury. Jones was promoted several times for his war service, ending his military career as a
major general. Jones died, aged 75, in Bodynfoel, near
Llanfechain. ==Personal life==