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James William Webb-Jones
James William Webb-Jones (1904–1965) was a Welsh choral conductor. Family and early lifeJames William, who was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales,[1] was the only child of the trans-European steamship agent[2][3][4] Ernest William Jones[5][6] (1870 – 1941),[7] who was the owner of M. Jones and Brothers (est. 1856)[2][8] and who was a first-class cricketer.[7] James William's mother was Aimée Elizabeth Parson (1873 – 1913),[5] who was the French-born daughter of James Holmes Parson who was a British merchant banker in Italy.[9] James William's parents were married at the British Consulate in Rouen, Haute Normandie, on 10 September 1900.[9] James William's uncles included the gynaecologist Arthur Webb-Jones;[10] and Edwin Price Jones who was Vice-Consul for Chile[11] and Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce.[2] James William was (through his cousin William (Bill) Wynn Jones[12] who was Anglican Bishop of Central Tanganyika)[13][14] a cousin of the National Party conservative Naomi Wilson OAM (b. 1940).[15] James William was (through his maternal grandmother Jessy Tyndale Burton) a great-great grandson of the London property-developer James Burton, and a relation of the architect Decimus Burton. EducationJames William was educated at Cranleigh School,[5][16] for which he played cricket,[17] and at Worcester College, Oxford,[5][16] where he was Captain of Cricket.[5][16] He later attended the University of Grenoble in France,[5][16] where he received the Diplôme de Hautes Études.[5][16]  James William's father Ernest, and his cousin William, and his son-in-law Peter, were members of the Jesters Cricket Club,[1] which was founded in 1928 by John 'Jock' Forbes Burnet (1910 - 1980) of St. Paul's School, London.[18] 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] Career
MarriageJames William married, at the Parish Church, Windsor, on 20 December 1930,[6][16] Barbara Bindon[22] Moody[16][5] (1903 - 1973),[22] of Emperor's Gate, South Kensington,[6] who was the daughter of Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody CB 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),[5][23] who married the chorister Peter Stanley Lyons[23][16] at Wells Cathedral in 1957.[21][24] The godmother of Bridget Webb-Jones was Lady Walford Davies,[25] 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.[25][26] Retirement and deathJames William and his wife, Barbara, retired to Witham Hall,[16] where his son-in-law Peter Stanley Lyons was Headmaster of the School.[25][21][16] Webb-Jones's hobbies were cricket, and fives, and fishing,[5] and wine.[16] Webb-Jones kept a wine store in the basement of Vanbrugh Castle,[16][27] and died, possibly as a consequence of alcoholism,[16] at Witham Hall in 1965, and is buried at The Church of St. Andrew, Witham on the Hill.[16] His wife lived at Witham Hall until her death in 1973, after which she was buried next to her husband. References
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