Henry Jones

Henry Jones (born Nov. 2, 1831, London, Eng.—died Feb. 10, 1899, London) was an English surgeon, the standard authority on whist in his day, who also wrote on other games.

Jones was educated at King’s College School (1842–48) and studied at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He practiced as a surgeon from 1852 to 1869. Jones learned whist from his father, who was an avid player at London’s Portland Club and coauthor of The Laws of Short Whist. The younger Jones’s importance lay in his ability to codify and comment upon the rules. He published Principles of Whist (1862; later titled Laws and Principles, 11th ed., 1886). He became whist editor of The Field magazine (1862). He also wrote manuals on croquet (1869); bezique, écarté, and euchre (all 1870); cribbage (1873); vingt-et-un (1874); lawn tennis and badminton (both 1876); chess and backgammon (both 1878); and patience (1890). In 1870 he helped found the All-England Croquet Club, and in 1888 he contributed articles on whist and other games to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1889). Jones visited the United States in 1893 and was honoured by whist clubs. His pseudonym derived from the name of the first whist club to which he was admitted in London’s Cavendish Square.