James William Webb-Jones


James William Webb-Jones was a Welsh choral conductor, educator, and cricketer.

Birth and family

James William was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales. He was the only child of Ernest William Jones of Glamorgan, a trans-European maritime transport magnate, who was the co-owner of the steamship agents M. Jones and Brothers,
and who was also a first-class cricketer, and his wife, Aimée Elizabeth Parson, who was the French-born daughter of James Holmes Parson, a British merchant banker in Italy. His parents were married at the British Consulate in Rouen, Haute Normandie, on 10 September 1900. James William's uncles included Arthur Webb-Jones, the eminent British gynaecologist, and Edwin Jones, Vice-Consul for Chile and Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce. James William's second cousin, William Wynne Jones, was Anglican Bishop of Central Tanganyika. Through his mother, Aimée Parson, James William was a descendant of the London property developer James Burton, who was the father of the architect Decimus Burton.
James William was educated at Cranleigh School, for which he played cricket, and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he was Captain of Cricket. He later attended the University of Grenoble in France, where he received the Diplôme de Hautes Études.
James William was a member of the original side of the Jesters Cricket Club, which was founded in 1928 by John 'Jock' Forbes Burnet of St. Paul's School, London. James William's father, Ernest; his cousin, William Wynne Jones; and his son-in-law, Peter, were members of the Club. James William played for the Jesters, alongside his father, against the Eton College Servants, in 1931, and, alongside his cousin William, against Chertsey, also in 1931.

Career

James William married Barbara Bindon Moody, of Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, the daughter of Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody CB and granddaughter of Richard Clement Moody, the first Governor of the Falkland Islands and later Governor of British Columbia, at the Parish Church, Windsor on 20 December 1930. Webb-Jones and Barbara Moody had one daughter, Bridget, who married Peter Stanley Lyons at Wells Cathedral in 1957. The godmother of Bridget Webb-Jones was Lady Walford Davies wife of composer Sir Henry Walford Davies KCVO OBE, who had been Master of the King's Music at St George's Chapel when James William had been Headmaster of St George's School, Windsor Castle. Lady Walford Davies later married Julian Harold Legge Lambart, Vice-Provost of Eton College, for which Witham Hall School is a preparatory school.

Retirement and Death

James William and his wife, Barbara, retired to Witham Hall, where his son-in-law Peter Stanley Lyons was Headmaster of the school. In his Who's Who entry, Webb-Jones states his hobbies to be cricket, fives, and fishing. He enjoyed wine, and had kept a wine store in the basement of Vanbrugh Castle whilst he lived there, with his wife, Barbara, from 1951 to 1955. James William Webb-Jones died at Witham Hall in 1965, and he is buried at Witham Hall. His wife continued to live at Witham Hall until her death in 1973, whereupon she was buried there next to her husband.