Dr Henry Bence Jones

A carte-de-visite portrait of Dr Henry Bence Jones (1814-1873).

The English physician Henry Bence Jones was born at Thorington Hall, 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.

He died in London on 20 April 1873.

Dr 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).

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 11 October 1861.