James William Webb-Jones

James William Webb-Jones (1904–1965) was a Welsh choral educator and founder of the Jesters Cricket Club.

James William, who was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales,^[1] was the only child of the trans-European chartered shipbroker^[2][3][4][5] Ernest William Jones^[6][7] (1870 – 1941),^[8] who was the owner of M. Jones and Brothers (est. 1856),^[3][9] who was a first class cricketer.^[2][8] James William's paternal uncle was the prominent gynaecologist Arthur Webb-Jones.^[10] James William's paternal grandfather was Lieutenant-Colonel William Matthew Jones VD (b. 1838).^[11]

James William's paternal cousins included Edwin Price Jones who (after a lauded pupillage in classical literature and English at the Royal Masonic School, Wood Green)^[12] was Vice-Consul for Chile^[13] and Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce;^[3] and William (Bill) Wynn Jones,^[14] who was Anglican Bishop of Central Tanganyika,^[15][16] through whom he was a cousin of the National Party conservative Naomi Wilson OAM (b. 1940).^[17]

James William's mother was Aimée Elizabeth Parson (1873 – 1913),^[6] who was the French-born third daughter of James Holmes Parson^[11] who was a British merchant banker in Italy.^[18] James William's parents were married at All Saints' Church and at the British Consulate in Rouen, Haute Normandie, on 10 September 1900.^[11][18]

James William's maternal aunt was Jessie S. Parson (later Endall)^[19][20] who had been selected by Crown Princess Sofia of Greece to be from 1898^[21] Lady Superintendent and Matron^[22][23] of the First Military Hospital at Athens,^[24] for which she received the Commemorative Medal of the Red Cross from Queen Olga of Greece.^[25] Jessie S. Parson had been previously Lady Superintendent of the English Hospital at the Piraeus during the war between Greece and Turkey of 1897,^[26] and was latterly, as Jessie S. Endall, Matron of the Children's Hospital at Athens.^[20]

James William's mother was a descendant of the London property-developer James Burton, and a relation of the architect Decimus Burton.

James William was educated at Cranleigh School,^[6][27] for which he played cricket,^[28] and at Worcester College, Oxford,^[6][27] where he was Captain of Cricket.^[6][27] He later attended the University of Grenoble in France,^[6][27] where he received the Diplôme de Hautes Études.^[6][27]

James William was a co-founder, with John 'Jock' Forbes Burnet (1910 - 1980) of St. Paul's School, London,^[29] of the Jesters Cricket Club,^[30] of which his father Ernest, and his cousin William, and his son-in-law Peter, were members. 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.^[1]

He was a member of the Confraternity of St. Andrew.^[30]

• Assistant Headmaster of St George's School, Windsor Castle, from 1928 to 1934.^[6][27]
• Headmaster of St George's School, Windsor Castle, from 1934 to 1942.^[31][6][27]
• He left St George's School in 1942, to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War II, from 1942 to 1945.^{[30][6][27][32]}
• Housemaster, Wellington School, Somerset, from 1945 to 1950.^[6][27]
• Headmaster of Vanbrugh Castle School from 1951 to 1955.^[6][27]
• Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School from 1955 to 1964,^[6][27] where his son-in-law Peter Stanley Lyons was Director of Music from 1954 to 1960.^[33] Webb-Jones also worked as a sidesman at Wells Cathedral and a member of the Friends of Wells Cathedral.^[30]
• Teacher at All Hallows Preparatory School, Cranmore, Somerset, during 1964 and 1965.^[30]

James William married, at the Parish Church, Windsor, on 20 December 1930,^[30][7][27] Barbara Bindon^[34] Moody^[27][6] (1903 - 1973),^[34] of Emperor's Gate, South Kensington,^[7] who was the daughter of Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody CB^[30] and the granddaughter of Major-General Richard Clement Moody (who was the founder and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia). James Webb-Jones and Barbara Moody had only one child, Bridget (b. 5 September 1937),^[6][35] who married the chorister Peter Stanley Lyons^[35][27] at Wells Cathedral in 1957.^[33][36]

The godmother of Bridget Webb-Jones was Lady Walford Davies,^[37] who was the wife of the composer Sir Henry Walford Davies KCVO OBE (who had been Master of the King's Music at St George's Chapel, Windsor, when James Webb-Jones had been Headmaster of St George's School, Windsor Castle). Lady Walford Davies later married Julian Harold Legge Lambart, who was Vice-Provost of Eton College, for which Witham Hall School became a preparatory school.^[37][38]

James William and his wife, Barbara, retired to Witham Hall,^[27] where his son-in-law Peter Stanley Lyons was Headmaster of the School.^[37][33][27] Webb-Jones's hobbies were cricket, fives, fishing,^[6] reading,^[30] and wine.^[27] He kept a wine store in the basement of Vanbrugh Castle,^[27][39] and died, possibly as a consequence of alcoholism,^[27] during 1965 at Witham Hall,^[30] and is buried at The Church of St. Andrew, Witham on the Hill,^[27] where his funeral was held.^[30] His wife died in 1973 and is buried next to her husband.

• "WEBB-JONES, James William (1904–1965)". Who's Who, Oxford Index. Oxford University Press.
• "Entry for James William Webb-Jones, Headmasters of Vanbrugh Castle School, Vanbrugh Castle School".
• "Profile for James William Webb-Jones, Vanbrugh Castle School".
• "Entry for Jones, M., & Brother, Steamship Agents, Who's Who in Business (1914)".