Topic: Henry Jones

Henry Jones (November 2, 1831) - (February 10, 1899) was an English author well-known as a writer and authority on tennis and card games who wrote under the nom de plume "Cavendish".

Henry Jones was born in London, the eldest son of surgeon Henry Derviche Jones. He attended King’s College School, Wimbledon from 1842 to 1848, and entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital as a student during the 1849/50 session. His signature can be seen in the hospital’s archives in the student signature book (a book that students signed when they began their studies) for the 1849/50 and 1850/1 sessions, where his address is given as 23 Soho Square.

Jones qualified MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) in 1852 and practised medicine as a GP until 1869 when he changed tack and became a full-time writer on games and sport. His writing career can be traced back to 1857 when he began writing about whist. Jones’s father had been a keen devotee of this trick-taking card game, and under his tutelage, Jones had become a good player at an early age. He was a member of several whist clubs, among them the Cavendish Club, and in 1862 he published Principles of Whist: stated and explained by "Cavendish", which became the leading authority on the game. This work was followed by treatises on the laws of the card games piquet and ecarte. Jones became widely known as "Cavendish" (his nom de plume), and wrote extensively in The Field, the world’s original country and fieldsports magazine, which was founded in 1853. "Cavendish" also wrote on billiards, lawn tennis and croquet, and contributed articles on whist and other games to the ninth edition (1911) of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Cavendish was not a law-maker, but he codified and commented upon the laws which had been made during many generations of card-playing." One of the most noteworthy points in his character was the manner in which he kept himself abreast of improvements in his favourite game.