David Patrick Fleming Jones

Colonel David Fleming Jones was born on 1 March 1939 in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire. He was raised by his mother Patricia until his father David, a Captain in the Parachute Regiment, returned from fighting in Italy and Greece at the end of the war. He attended Stonyhurst College, before going to Guy's Hospital where he became an Army scholar and played rugby for the combined London Hospitals' XV. He began work as a general duties officer in the Royal Army Dental Corps at Chelsea Barracks in 1966, and three years later was posted to Singapore. On return from Singapore, he was posted to Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia, serving with the BAOR. David returned to the UK in 1973 to serve as a general duties officer in Yorkshire (Hampsthwaite) from where he spent a six-month active duty stint in Northern Ireland. From here he took a three-year secondment to the Royal Brunei Malay Regiment in Borneo, where he oversaw the building of a new dental centre at Berakas. On returning from Brunei, he spent most of the rest of his career divided between Germany (Fallingbostel, Dusseldorf and Hamlin) and Winchester and Aldershot in the UK. Whilst in Fallingbostel and Winchester he completed a Master's degree in Restorative Dentistry at the Eastman Institute in London. He was promoted to Colonel in 1987, taking up posts as officer commanding the RADC's technical services and commanding officer of the north German dental group, before becoming an adviser in general dental practice to the corps. He took early retirement in 1993, but continued in private practice in Hampshire before retiring five years later. He was a passionate fly-fisherman, and wherever he lived made a den, in which an assortment of dental instruments was given over to the manufacture of elaborate flies. He died after a traumatic illness brought about as a result of a heart valve operation, the causes of which currently remain unclear. He bore this with customary fortitude and dignity, and died gently as he lived. He will be sorely missed by his family, including his wife Sally and three sons, grandchildren and friends.