Robert Armstrong-Jones

Who was Robert Armstrong-Jones?

Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, CBE was a Welsh physician and psychiatrist. He was the grandfather of the Earl of Snowdon.

He was born Robert Jones in Ynyscynhaearn, Caernarvonshire, the son of a Congregational minister. He was educated at Porthmadog Grammar School and Grove Park School, Wrexham, going on to study medicine at University of Wales, Bangor, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Becoming a specialist in the treatment of mental illness, he worked as a junior medical officer at the Royal Earlswood Institution and Colney Hatch during the 1880s, and became resident physician and superintendent of Earlswood Asylum in 1888. In 1893 he became superintendent of the London County Council's Claybury Asylum, where he developed new treatments. In the same year he married Margaret Roberts, the elder daughter of Sir Owen Roberts of Plas Dinas, Caernarfon.

Armstrong-Jones lectured at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and became consulting physician in mental diseases to the military forces at London and Aldershot. In 1913, he assumed the additional surname of Armstrong. During World War I, he was designated a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps; he was knighted in 1917 and after the war he was awarded a CBE. He was appointed High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire for 1929.