Eldred Durosimi Jones was born on 6 January 1925 to Sierra Leone Creole parents. On his maternal side, Jones descended from the Jamaican Maroons. Jones attended the CMS Grammar School, Freetown, and Fourah Bay College (1944–47), completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. He studied in England at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1950–53) and the main campus of the University of Durham (1962).
