Jones was born in 1927 in Wallasey, part of the Wirral in what was then part of Cheshire in the north-west of England. His father was a shipping clerk and later a departmental manager in the Liverpool office of the Cunard White Star Line. His mother was a housewife. He did his primary and secondary schooling in Wallasey. His entire family was Methodist and he attended a Methodist Sunday school.[1][2]
When Gaborone was built as the independent Botswana's new capital in the 1960s, it needed a government. Vice-PresidentQuett Masire urged him to run for city council as a Botswana Democratic Party candidate, but Jones did not believe that would be appropriate for a clergyman. Instead, he agreed to run as an independent and was elected unopposed in the South Ring constituency. Soon after, he was chosen as the city's first mayor in 1966.[2]
In 1968, he remained on the city council but stepped down as mayor, and was succeeded by Grace Dambe. He served his full term on the city council, but chose not to run for reelection in 1969. Soon after, he was awarded the OBE.[2]
From 1972 to 1993, he managed the Botswana Book Centre. In 1982, the Botswana Book Centre left the ELDT and a Botswana-based trust was formed to hold the business. Jones continued as manager until retirement in 1993, after which he was still involved with some of the publishing. For some time he continued to serve as editor of the Botswana Society, producing its journal Botswana Notes and Records. His wife (since 1954), Joan Ann (née Talbert), originally Catholic, was awarded the MBE in 2000 for service to her community. She died in September 2002, aged 80.[where?][2][5]
John Derek Jones returned to England, where he died on 9 March 2013, aged 86.[5]
