seconded and appointed to the Shannon commission. On 7 Sept. 1840 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. His services in Ireland were so highly appreciated that when in 1842 he was offered an appointment at headquarters, he was, at the urgent request of the lords of the treasury, retained in Ireland, and on 15 Oct. 1845 was appointed chairman of the board of public works in Ireland.
After the death of his brother, Sir John Jones, in 1843, he edited a third edition of the ‘Journal of Sieges carried on by the Army under the Duke of Wellington in Spain during the years 1811 to 1814,’ to which he added considerable information in the body of the work and a copious appendix. This edition was published in 1846. At the time he was a member of the relief committee under Sir John Burgoyne, and in 1847 he received the thanks of the treasury and of the prime minister, Lord John Russell, for his exertions. In 1850, in accordance with regulations, having served ten years uninterruptedly in the civil employment of the state, he had to revert to military duty, and was appointed in March of that year to command the royal engineers in North Britain. On 1 May 1851 he was selected to fill the important position of director of the royal engineer establishment at Chatham. He there introduced a system by which officers and men of the line should be instructed in field works, and made the value of the pick and shovel more practically known to the army at large. In 1853 Jones accompanied Lord Lucan to Paris on a mission from the queen to the emperor of the French. In April 1854 he was again sent to Paris by Lord Raglan, master-general of the ordnance, to report on a new pontoon adopted by the French. In May and June of the same year he was president of two committees on the royal sappers and miners, which led to their name being altered to that already held by their officers, viz. royal engineers, and various alterations were made in their dress and equipment.
On 7 July Jones became full colonel, and on the declaration of war with Russia he was appointed (10 July) brigadier-general, and placed in command of the forces to be employed in the Baltic in land operations. He embarked on board the Duke of Wellington, Sir Charles Napier's flagship, and in August landed at Bomarsund, in command of the British portion of the allied land forces. On the capitulation of the fort the works were demolished, and the island was abandoned. He received the thanks of the queen, communicated by despatch of the secretary of state, for his services in the Baltic. In October he returned to England, and resumed his duties at Chatham. On 12 Dec. he was appointed major-general on the staff, and ordered to proceed to Constantinople as commandant of that city, but on his arrival in January 1855 he found orders awaiting him to join the army before Sebastopol without delay. On 10 Feb. he was put in orders as commanding royal engineer of that army. Here he distinguished himself by his old indefatigable energy. Not a day passed that he did not visit the trenches. He was present at the unsuccessful assault on the Redan on 18 June, and was severely wounded in the forehead by a grapeshot, and mentioned in despatches by Lord Raglan. For his wound he received 100l. On 30 July he received the local rank of lieutenant-general. At the general assault on 8 Sept. he was carried in a stretcher to the trenches that he might have a share in the last effort of the siege. On this occasion he was specially mentioned in despatches by Sir James Simpson, the then commander-in-chief. In the course of the year he received the following distinctions and decorations: K.C.B., first-class military order of Savoy, second-class Medjidie, British war medal for Baltic, war medal and clasp for Sebastopol, Sardinian medal and Turkish medal.
Soon after the fall of Sebastopol his wound necessitated his removal to Scutari, and in October to England. In January 1856 he was a member of the council of war in Paris, presided over by the emperor of the French, who invested him with the order of commander of the Legion of Honour. On 12 April 1856 he was awarded a good service pension of 100l. per annum. On 29 April he was appointed governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In May he was also made a member of the commission on the system of purchase in the army, presided over by the Duke of Somerset. On 20 Aug. 1859 he was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on the Defences of the United Kingdom. On 6 July 1860 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and on 2 Aug. the same year he became a colonel commandant in the corps of royal engineers. In 1861 he was appointed hon. colonel of the 4th administrative battalion of the Cheshire rifle volunteers. He was made a G.C.B. the same year, and also commander of the Sardinian order of Savoy, and hon. D.C.L. of Oxford. He died in harness at Sandhurst, esteemed, admired, and regretted, on 2 Aug. 1866, and was buried there in the cemetery of the Royal Military College. His portrait, painted by E. U. Eddis, hangs in the mess-room of the royal engineers at Chatham. A memorial tablet was placed by his brother officers in
