Ken Jones: The Olympian and British & Irish Lion

Athletics 17 Jul 25

It was during the Second World War that Ken Jones developed the searing pace that helped him become one of the greatest all-round athletes in British sporting history.

With the British & Irish Lions currently touring Australia, Jones is one of an exclusive group to have pulled on their famous red jersey and competed in an Olympic Games.

He had already played for Wales in rugby union by the time he represented Great Britain in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where he helped his team to medal in the 4x100m relay while he also participated in the 100m.

Two years later, he was selected to play for the Lions for their tour of New Zealand, a country which his rugby career became indelibly linked with.

Ken Jones sporting beginnings

It was in Blaenavon in south Wales, where he was born in 1921, that Jones’ story began, in an area where rugby has always been very popular.

He developed his game while attending West Monmouth Grammar School in Pontypool under the tutelage of sports master Gilbert Garnett, and he admitted sprinting was not a priority at the time.

“I had always been a keen runner from the age of 10. I was alright, but never that good when I was in school,” he said.

That burst of pace that earned him so much success started to come into play while he was stationed in India with the Royal Air Force towards the end of the Second World War.

After news filtered through of victory in Europe, a sports day was organised as part of the celebrations and Jones won the 100m and 200m, with the officer in charge of his camp taking notice of his performances.

He was eventually invited to take part in the All-India Games at the end of 1945, and he won the 100m in 10.8 seconds and finished second in the 200m.

Jones said: “The organisers didn’t have medals to hand out and they wouldn’t even give me a certificate, the miserable so-and-sos.

“I went back to my unit feeling rather pleased with myself and a week or so later I applied for a Class B release, because I was a schoolteacher, and by Easter 1946 I was home.”

Jones started playing rugby again upon returning to Wales, playing a handful of games for Blaenavon and Pontypool before earning a place in the first team of Newport, where he would stay for the rest of his career.

After coming through trials, he played in Wales’ first post-war fixture when he made his international debut against England in the 1947 Five Nations.

Ken Jones Olympics

Now a keen sprinter, he turned down lucrative offers from rugby league clubs to turn professional because he wanted to run in the 1948 Olympics for Great Britain.

That dream was realised when he was selected to compete at Wembley Stadium in what was dubbed the ‘Austerity Games.’

After reaching the semi-finals of the individual 100m, in which he finished sixth, he was part of GB’s 4x100m relay final team alongside Jack Archer, John Gregory and Alastair McCorquodale.

Jones ran the anchor leg as the team finished second behind the United States.

For a while, though, he and his team-mates were celebrating a gold medal rather than silver after the Americans were disqualified for an illegal changeover.

It was only three days later that the decision was reversed after film material of the race was examined and the US were reinstated as Olympic champions.

Ken Jones rugby career

Remarkably, Jones was not the only member of the British team to play rugby for his country, with Gregory earning one cap for England (inevitably against Jones’ Wales) in 1949.

By 1950, Jones had become a regular on the wing for Wales, with his performances bringing another crowning achievement in his sporting career when he was selected by the Lions for their tour of New Zealand and Australia.

In what was the first tour of the Lions wearing their now famous red jerseys, Jones excelled scoring 16 tries in 17 games, with three of those appearances coming against the mighty All Blacks.

In the fourth and final Test, Jones scored one of the greatest tries of his career when he showed his Olympian pace in sprinting 75 metres to the line with opponents trailing in his wake.

The bounce of the ball stopped him from preventing an 11-8 loss in Auckland in what was a 3-0 series defeat for the Lions, but Jones was to have his moment of glory against New Zealand.

When Wales welcomed the All Blacks to Cardiff in 1953, the score was tied at 8-8 when Jones took Clem Thomas’ kick on the bounce and rounded his opponent to score what was the winning try in a 13-8 win.

It remains to this day the last time Wales have beaten New Zealand, giving Jones a piece of history that has endured for 72 years, and counting.

Ken Jones late career

His athletics career was far from finished, however, and he competed in two major championships in 1954. Jones won bronze for Wales in the 220 yards at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver before helping Great Britain win bronze in the 4x100m relay at the European Championships in Bern.

By the time his athletics career had come to an end, Jones had won 15 Welsh sprint titles plus a long jump title in 1949, a year that brought him three gold medals.

Jones was the first ever BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year in 1954 and after playing his last game for Wales, against France in 1957, his tally of 43 caps was a world record that stood for 20 years.

During his decade-long international career, Jones helped Wales win the Five Nations on six occasions, including two Grand Slams (by beating all four teams).

Jones’ club career at Newport, who he captained in the 1950/51 and 1953/54 seasons, came to an end in 1958.

The same year, he was asked to be the final runner to carry the baton with a message from the Queen during the opening ceremony of the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, an honour akin to being the final torchbearer during the opening ceremony of an Olympics.

Jones was awarded an OBE in 1960 and while he was a high school teacher for most of his life, he worked as a sports reporter for more than two decades, mainly focusing on the two sports in which he reached the top, athletics and rugby.

He was one of the first 10 inductees into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and served as president at Newport Rugby Club until resigning in protest after rugby turned professional in 1995.

Jones was unfortunately confined to a wheelchair for the final years of his life after a stroke and he died in 2006, aged 84.

The way in which athletics and rugby have developed since his days of competing means his achievements are likely to never be repeated, meaning they will never be forgotten despite them starting to fade from living memory.

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