Ernest Jones
Psychoanalyst; introduced psychoanalysis to Britain and North America
Alfred Ernest Jones was born on the 1st of January, 1879, in Gowerton, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Jones, a self-taught colliery engineer who later became accountant and company secretary at the Elba Steelworks, and his wife Mary Ann. He won a scholarship to Llandovery College before studying at University College, Cardiff, and University College, London, qualifying in medicine with honours and gold medals in 1901.
Jones became a lifelong friend and colleague of Sigmund Freud from their first meeting in 1908, and went on to become his official biographer, writing a three-volume life of Freud. He was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and its leading exponent in the English-speaking world, founding both the British Psychoanalytical Society and the American Psychoanalytic Association, and serving as President of the International Psychoanalytical Association. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1942 and received an honorary D.Sc. from Swansea University in 1954. Ernest died on the 11th of February, 1958, and his ashes were later brought back to Wales for burial on the Gower Peninsula.