Born in Dulwich, Jones was educated at Alleyn's School, Dulwich and Wadham College, Oxford where he read Natural Sciences. In 1932 he graduated with First Class honours in physics and then, working in the Clarendon Laboratory, completed his DPhil in 1934. Subsequently he took up a Senior Studentship in Astronomy at Balliol College, Oxford
In 1936 Jones took up the post of Scientific Officer at the Air Ministry. Here he worked on the many problems associated with defending Britain from air attack.
In September 1939 he moved to the Intelligence section of the Air Ministry, rising to become Assistant Director of Intelligence (Science)there. During the course of the Second World War he was closely involved with the scientific assessment of enemy technology, and the development of offensive and counter-measures technology. One of his earliest efforts involved defeating German radio navigation equipment in what was later known as the Battle of the beams. He was later instrumental in the deployment of "Window"; strips of metal foil dropped in bundles from aircraft which then appeared on enemy radar screens as "false bombers". This technology is now known as chaff. When the Germans began launching V-1s at London he arranged for double agents to inform the Germans that the missiles were over-shooting. The Germans decreased the target range of the V-1s and they began to fall not on London, but on less densely-populated areas to the south.
In 1946 Jones was appointed to the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, which he held until his retirement in 1981. During his time at Aberdeen much of his attention was devoted to improving the sensitivity of scientific instruments such as seismometers, capacitance micrometers, microbarographs, and optical levers.
Jones was awarded the CBE in 1942, CB in 1946, and the CH in 1994. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1965.
Jones married Vera Cain in 1940--they had two daughters and a son.
In 1993 the CIA created the R. V. Jones Intelligence Award in his honour.
R. V. Jones' papers are held by Churchill College, Cambridge.
Books by R. V. Jones
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