Dr Kenneth Simpson Jones

Formerly Consultant Psychiatrist, Morgannwg Hospital, Bridgend

Kenneth was born in Cardiff on 29 May 1922. He went to Cardiff High School and after deciding to do medicine he was accepted at Westminster Medical School where he qualified in 1946. After completing a few house jobs, he did 2 years National Service as a medical officer with the R.A.M.C. and then decided on a career in Psychiatry. After completing registrarships at St Ebba's Hospital, Epsom, and Belmont Hospital, Sutton, he was appointed Senior Registrar in Psychiatry at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

In 1957 he was appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at Morgannwg Hospital, Bridgend, where, with a number of other psychiatrists, he helped to transform a traditional psychiatric institution into a modern progressive hospital with good community psychiatric services. He found time for writing and published articles on deliberate disability, the treatment of bed-wetting and a study of the relationship between religious beliefs and mental illness.

Unfortunately, he had to retire prematurely at the age of 50 because of chronic depressive illness (and contributed a chapter about this in the book Wounded Healers). In latter years his physical health deteriorated and he spent the last few years of his life in a nursing home. After retirement and before he became physically ill, he did voluntary work for the National Trust and for the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans.

Kenneth was a quiet, reserved, thoughtful, reflective and self-critical man with high professional standards. He found the old controversy between physical methods of treatment and psychological methods a tedious one. He was an excellent example of a psychiatrist who combined both approaches quite naturally. He was a man of wide culture who loved books, music and theatre. One of his favourite authors was the American Saul Bellow whom he was fond of quoting. His favourite quotation was ‘Life – I work at it and show steady improvement. I expect to be in great shape on my deathbed’.

He died on 29 July 2011. His wife, Margaret, predeceased him by 2 years. He is survived by his three sons – Andrew, a professor of otolaryngology, Christopher, a psychotherapist and Peter, a biological scientist.