Dr Henry Bence Jones
(1814-1873)
11 October 1861

Volume 5, page 131, sitting number 6019.

The English physician Henry Bence Jones was a recognized authority on diseases of the stomach and kidneys. In addition to several scientific books and a number of papers in scientific periodicals, he was also the author of The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870).

He was born at Thorington Hall in Suffolk on 31 December 1813, the son of an officer in the Dragoon guards. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently he studied medicine at St George’s Hospital, and chemistry at University College, London. In 1841 he travelled to Giessen in Germany to work at chemistry with Liebig.

Besides becoming a fellow, and afterwards senior censor, of the Royal College of Physicians, and a fellow of the Royal Society, he held the post of secretary to the Royal Institution for many years. In 1846 he was elected physician to St George’s Hospital.

Doctor Henry Bence Jones died on 20 April 1873 at his home, 84 Brook Street in Mayfair. He left an estate valued at £50,000.