the late David Rogers Jones pictured with a 1963 concert poster featuring The Beatles that sold for a hammer price of £28,000 in May 2017.
We are devastated to announce the death of David Rogers Jones, our dad and the joint founder of Rogers Jones & Co. He succumbed to cancer, which was diagnosed just a few days after his 80th birthday in October.
Our dad and mum, Margaret, started Rogers Jones & Co in 1992. They made great sacrifices and worked long hours to create a busy auction room in Colwyn Bay town centre, initially living above the saleroom, in a flat which doubled up as their office space.
Dad often remarked that he was immensely grateful for the support from local solicitors and clients who entrusted the company with instructions from the very beginning. They helped the business gain momentum and set foundations for its future progress. In recent years, dad was exceptionally proud of the company’s development and the scale and stature that we have been able to attain.
First auction in 1962
The David Rogers Jones in his earlier days.
Dad was a supreme auctioneer who loved his job. The first auction he conducted was in the Drill Hall, Menai Bridge, in 1962, and his last auction was only four or so years ago. There can be very few auctioneers who have conducted as many auctions and sold as many lots as he had. Certainly, it seems likely that no-one in Wales will ever come close.
Dad loved the theatrical element to auctioneering, but his style was not showy, there were no gimmicks – none of the fancy waistcoats, dramatic hand gestures or catchphrases that might be witnessed at some metropolitan auction houses.
He added warmth to his auctions through gentle humour, fun and camaraderie with the bidders. This helped bidders feel at ease and enabled him to generate a fabulous rapport with customers. Dad would not have been the man for a fancy London auction house but he was the man for auctioneering in Wales to the Welsh public. He had great affinity with this audience.
Our dad loved being out and ‘doing his calls’. He enjoyed meeting people and getting to know every backroad, housing estate and small community in North Wales. My brother John and I were privileged to spend a great deal of time out on calls with him when we started our Rogers Jones careers. He always had the perfect tone, clients would immediately warm to him as a person knowing that he wanted the best for them.
He was the consummate professional during his valuations, but there would always be humour where appropriate, such as his classic ‘now, you haven’t booked a cruise have you, Mrs Jones?’
Dad’s final valuation appointment was on Monday, December 5, 2022. He was by then very weak and weary but despite our concerns he insisted that he wanted to conduct a probate valuation in Caernarfon – which he duly did, but this time with mum by his side. Only a few hours later, he was taken to hospital for what, it transpired, would be for end-oflife treatment.
We have since listened to his final dictated valuation which was a lucid and thorough assessment of a house contents for the purpose of probate. He remained the professional to the very end.
Dad was incredibly proud that 30 years on from its humble beginnings, the Rogers Jones company is still a family business with family values at its core, and that colleagues within the company appear to be happy in their work and remain for long durations.
One of dad’s legacies is that the company remains an extension of the Rogers Jones family, and that the family values on which the company were built are secured for the future, through myself and my brother.
Dad leaves his wife (and best friend) Margaret, from whom he had been inseparable since their student days. He leaves three children – myself, my brother and my lovely sister Shan. He also leaves five grandchildren, together with cherished in-law children Paul, Glenda and Mererid.
David Rogers Jones was admired and respected by clients, customers, and employees past and present.
He was adored by his family.
