Daniel Jones

If you’ve ever walked past 38 Eversley Road in Sketty, you’ve passed the boyhood home of one of Wales’s greatest musical minds. Daniel Jones, born in 1912, would grow up to become one of the most distinguished composers of the 20th century; a man whose symphonies echoed far beyond Swansea, but whose heart and roots never left it.

Daniel’s story began in Pembroke, but his family moved to Sketty when he was just a baby. The Joneses settled into a house they called Warmley, and it was here, in the leafy calm of Eversley Road, that Daniel’s musical talent began to flourish. His parents were musical themselves, and they nurtured their son’s gifts early. By the age of nine, he had already composed ten piano sonatas.

Music was just one part of life at Warmley. The house also became something of a creative headquarters for Daniel and his school friend Dylan Thomas. The two boys met while attending Swansea Grammar School (now Bishop Gore), famously squabbling on their first meeting but becoming inseparable thereafter. They recorded pretend radio programmes in the attic, held amateur performances in the garden, and formed lifelong bonds through poetry and music. Their group of friends; later nicknamed the "Kardomah Gang", included artists, poets and dreamers, many of who went on to make their own mark on Welsh culture.

Daniel was as gifted academically as he was musically. He graduated with a First in English from University College, Swansea, and then pursued formal music training at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He studied conducting with the legendary Sir Henry Wood and won the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship, which took him to Vienna and Rome.

During World War II, he served as a captain in the British Army’s Intelligence Corps at Bletchley Park, using his ear for patterns and structure to help break enemy codes, a little known chapter in his story that showed just how broadly his talents stretched.

After the war, Daniel Jones returned to Wales and began producing the music that would define his legacy. He developed a signature style that combined rhythmic complexity with lyrical clarity. Across his life, he composed 12 symphonies, each with a distinct musical character. Some were rooted in single notes of the chromatic scale; an approach that gave each piece its own colour and mood. His Symphony No. 4, composed in 1954, was dedicated to his late friend Dylan Thomas and stands as one of his most poignant and personal works.

Jones also wrote string quartets, operas, concertos, choral music, and perhaps most famously, the incidental music for Dylan Thomas’s radio play Under Milk Wood. That collaboration won the Italia Prize in 1954 and introduced Daniel’s work to an international audience.

Although his music was played on stages across Britain and beyond, Daniel Jones remained deeply connected to Swansea and especially to Sketty. Even after marrying and moving to nearby Newton, he continued to compose from his home and maintained his ties to the local artistic community. His friendships from Warmley days remained central to his life, and his vivid memories of Sketty; its people, gardens, and sea air stayed with him always.

He lectured on music, gave talks on Welsh culture, and championed a new generation of Welsh composers. His home in Swansea became a quiet but important node in the story of 20th-century British music.

Daniel Jones passed away in 1993, having composed right up until his final years. Today, his works are performed by orchestras in Wales and around the world. His manuscripts are preserved at the National Library of Wales, and his portraits hang in public collections.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing is how much of his legacy still lingers here in Sketty. Walk by Eversley Road and you might still imagine the sound of a piano drifting from an upstairs window, or a young Daniel and Dylan staging another of their garden broadcasts. It's a quiet reminder that sometimes, world class talent grows in the most familiar of places.

Did you know?

• Daniel’s Symphony No. 1 is considered the first major symphony ever composed by a Welshman.

• He edited Dylan Thomas’s poetry after the poet’s death and wrote a memoir titled My Friend Dylan Thomas.

• His musical style blended complex rhythms with lyrical beauty; never flashy, but always original.