Evan Jones who pioneered battlefields tourism in Dundee passed away on Sunday. His bother, Dick, pays tribute to a man who did so much for the area
One of South Africa’s most experienced and knowledgeable battlefields guides, Evan Jones (83), died in Dundee on Sunday night from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Soon after selling his property and buying a cottage at the Eventide Homes complex for him and his wife to move into last month, he became ill and was admitted to Eventide’s frail care unit, where he passed away.
Evan became a registered battlefields tourist guide in 1991 and retired three years ago. He moved to Pietermaritzburg in January 1996 and launched PMB Heritage Tours with a kombi and a cell phone.
Inquiries started coming in slowly from private individuals and members of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), but 10 months later, business improved after he used the Internet to attract foreign tourists, especially groups from Britain. Brigadier Jim Parker, the former British Military Attaché in Pretoria, established a wholesale tour business in Mooi River and, using Parker’s British Army contacts, they arranged regular battlefields group tours together, with Evan as tour leader/guide.
After passing exams for a Level 5 Natal Guiding Course, Evan was approached to establish a Pietermaritzburg Guides Association and he was elected the association’s first president.
He was awarded the first of five consecutive 5-Star Customer Service Awards by the PCCI in 2000 and, in 2002, with more business coming in from the KZN Battlefields, he moved back to Dundee. The name of his business was changed to Heritage Tours & Transfers as he frequently carried out Northern KZN inter-lodge transfers for clients.
At the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Awards in 2005, Evan won the trophy for the Best Tourist Guide in KZN. Two years later he became the first badged South African to be accepted as a member of the prestigious (UK) International Guild of Battlefield Guides, and he qualified as a Certified Tourist Guide Assessor.
He was awarded the PCCI’s Tourism Section trophy in 2004 and in 2005 won the Tourism KwaZulu-Natal Service Award for Tourism Companies in business more than five years.
In 2011 he was elected chairman of the KZN Battlefields Route, a position he held for three years. He also served as chairman of Dundee Tourism, the 35-member Battlefields Guides Association and he was an executive committee member of the Dundee Chamber of Business.
He built up an impeccable reputation with clients from all walks of life as a specialist Battlefields guide but was also qualified to take clients all over KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Northern Cape.
With an enduring interest in history, he first explored the KZN battlefields on a motorised scooter. His amateur historian father, Fred Jones, was founder and first curator of Dundee’s prestigious Talana Museum, and his elder brother, Dick Jones, was Pietermaritzburg’s Director of Publicity for 21 years.
Evan was active in three service organisations – Skal International, Lions and Rotary – and became a Paul Harris Fellow for his fund-raising efforts whilst a member of the Dundee Rotary Club.
Evan Maurice Jones was born in Gillingham, Kent, UK, on 1 November 1937 and came to South Africa with his father and brother in 1947. His mother followed six months later with baby brother, David.
He attended Wynberg Boys High School in Cape Town and Glenwood High School in Durban. As part of his military service in 1954 he trained at the Naval Gymnasium and Academy at Saldanha Bay.
Evan arrived in Dundee in November 1959 when his employers appointed him manager of a retail outlet. He later worked for Consolidated Glass, Kilty’s and a steel company before going full time into tourist guiding.
Married twice, Evan leaves his wife, Moira, children Bronwen, Stuart and Gareth, and step-children Hylton and Debra.
He and Moira would have celebrated 50 years of marriage on 3 July.
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