Early Life
Jones was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, to Thomas Gwilym Jones and Lydia Anne Jones, his parents having met as students at the University of Aberystwyth. Until he was about ten years old the family were accommodated alternately at his paternal grandparents' house in New Quay in Ceredigion and his maternal grandparents' house near Aberystwyth. Later the family moved to the Wirral, returning to Wales for their holidays.
Jones' paternal grandfather and great grandfather were both sea captains. His father was a PhD chemist and worked on detergents such as Jif. Dylan Thomas was an acquaintance of his father. As a child Jones often stayed at his paternal grandparents' home and spent a lot of his time in the attic which contained some seafaring equipment, and boxes of books covering a wide variety of topics, many of which Jones read. He also went to libraries and by the age of 14 years he had read all the works of Charles Dickens. As a child in Ceredigion Jones spoke a lot of Welsh until he was 6 or 7 years old, and as a keen obsverver of local wildlife was particularly interested in birds. Jones was a pupil at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. At the age of 13 to 14 years old Jones was inspired to study biology by a school teacher.
Read more about this topic: Steve Jones (biologist)
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