Robert Jones (figure skater)

Robert Jones (also known as "Captain Jones") was an officer in the Royal Artillery of the British Army. He is best known for writing and self-publishing The Art of Skating, the first book about figure skating, in 1772, which helped popularize the sport in Great Britain. He also authored a book about and popularising fireworks. The Art of Skating has been called "a milestone in the history of figure skating"; it described basic techniques of skating, which was a recreational activity at the time, before the development of figure skating as a sport in the late 1800s. Jones was the first to recognise skating as an art form and advocated for the inclusion of women in the activity, as long as it was done for leisure.

Jones was tried for sodomy in 1772, accused of committing the act with a 12-year-old boy. He was sentenced to death, but allowed to go into exile. The court case was widely debated and discussed among politicians and in the popular press of the day and was compared to Oscar Wilde's case one hundred years later.