▶Date of birth:  17 March 1866        Place of birth: Allestree, Derbyshire

▶Father: Francis Innes Jones      Mother: Letitia Ellen Walker

▶Spouse(s):  Frances Higgins    Date(s) of marriage:   17 July 1895    Place(s) of marriage: Ambleside, Westmorland

▶Occupation: Clergyman

▶Lifestory: Frank Melville Jones was the fifth son of the Revd. Francis Jones, Incumbent of Sandgate (and later of All Saints’ Church, Nelson, New Zealand), and his wife Letitia. The family emigrated to Nelson in New Zealand, and he was educated at Nelson College and at the University of New Zealand, where he obtained his BA. He then returned to Britain, and was ordained Deacon in 1890, and Priest (both Gloucester and Bristol) the following year. In 1891 he became the Curate at Holy Trinity Church, Cheltenhamstrong>, and boarded at a lodging-house at 15 Pittville Parade (now 30 Evesham Road); his father died this year, at the family house in Pittville.

He may have felt that his work in Cheltenham was preliminary to a career in Africa. In March 1894 he sailed to Nelson, New Zealand, intending to go out the following year for the Church Missionary Society to Africa. This he did, and then returned to England temporarily in 1895, when he married Frances Higgins at Ambleside in Westmorland; she had preceded him as a CMS missionary working with the Yoruba. They returned to Nigeria, initially with the CMS at Onitsha in south-central Nigeria, and in 1895 he was appointed the Principal of St. Andrew’s CMS Training College at Oyo, near Ibadan in western Nigeria, a post he held until 1907. Over this period he made several visits home to Britain, to promote the work of the CMS. In 1919 he was appointed the first Anglican Bishop of Lagos, a post he held until just before his death; he had a reputation as an energetic missionary and educationalist.

He was awarded the degree of DD and had the distinction of becoming a Commander of the British Empire in 1940 for his services to the people and country of New Zealand. His death occurred in early January 1941 in Oshogbo, Nigeria, when he was seventy-four; his wife at that time was Lady Principal of the CMS Girls’ Seminary at Lagos.

▶Moved to Pittville from: Nelson, New Zealand       Moved from Pittville to: New Zealand and then Nigeria

▶Date of death: 8 January 1941       Place of death: Oshogbo, Nigeria

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:  not in Clergy List 1899; Wikipedia; https://www.dioceseoflagos.org/past-bishops/; Gloucestershire Echo 28 March 1892 and 11 January 1941    ID: 3392

Contributor(s):  John Simpson