THE daughter of a former Oxford rugby Blue who died after a fall in South Africa has paid tribute to his “kind-hearted and bright” personality.

An inquest yesterday at Oxford Coroner’s Court heard 75-year-old Ian Jones, of Mandlebrot Drive in Littlemore, died on June 1 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford after being repatriated to the UK.

The grandfather-of-four had two daughters, Kelly Jones, 46, who lives in East Oxford, and Clare Willcox, 40, who lives in Sydney, Australia.

He was also a keen boxer and marathon runner, taking part in the Marathon des Sables, dubbed ‘the toughest footrace on Earth’.

His daughter Kelly said he had been an “amazing athlete”, who played rugby nationally for Wales, the London Welsh and faced the All Blacks twice. She added: “He was a kind-hearted and bright person, and always willing to help anyone.

“He came from a small village in South Africa but won a scholarship and hitch-hiked to Oxford University.”

The inquest heard Mr Jones was a retired mergers and acquisitions manager for De La Rue, a firm which prints banknotes for several countries around the world, and had also been involved in setting up the UK National Lottery.

He gained a Rhodes Scholarship to study mathematics and physics at The Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1961, hitch-hiking from the airport to his new college.

As a student he took up boxing and rugby, winning three rugby Blues, and played for Oxford against the All Blacks in the opening game of their 1963/64 tour, facing off against them next in 1967 for East Wales.

He played for London Welsh between 1964 and 1972 and for Wales during the 1968 Five Nations Championship against Ireland.

After his retirement from rugby he took up running, taking part in the first London Marathon in 1981 and later the testing Marathon des Sables across the Sahara aged 60.

He ran his last marathon, aged 70, in Fish Hoek, South Africa, in 2010.

Coroner Darren Salter said Mr Jones and his wife Sheila, 70, had been staying at their holiday home on South Africa’s Western Cape, when he had a fall on the afternoon of March 25 and suffered a serious head injury.

In a written statement, read by Mr Salter, Mrs Jones said: “He left our apartment to go for a stroll before supper on the cliffside paths, about 10 minutes from our flat.

“When he returned his face and shirt were covered in blood.”

Mr Jones was taken to a local hospital, but his loss of blood caused breathing difficulties and a cardiac arrest and he went into a coma, Mr Salter said.

He was repatriated to the UK and taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, but died on June 1 from atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular heart beat.

Mr Salter recorded a verdict of accidental death.